In a major shake-up of Sydney Diocese's web presence caused by the financial crisis, Southern Cross will no longer be made available online.

Interstate and overseas readers will be encouraged to take paid subscriptions of the print edition. Southern Cross needs a boost in paid subscriptions in order to ensure its long-term viability.

The cutbacks to Sydneyanglicans.net will also impact the blog and podcast sections of the site.

"These changes are a recognition of the very trying times Anglican Media finds itself in," says New Media Manager Mark Hadley. "But Sydneyanglicans.net has a loyal community who have helped us develop one of the best Christian website around."

Anglican Media has lost the equivalent of 5 full-time staff this year. Mr Hadley will finish up with Anglican Media on September 30.

"Although I am leaving, Anglican Media is still committed to developing its web resources," Mr Hadley said.

Allan Dowthwaite, CEO of Anglican Media and who has a TV production background, will be taking on the hands-on management of the site.

Anglican Media's new web strategy is likely to see an increase in video-based resources.

Details of the changes to Anglican Media's web service include:

"¢ PDFs of Southern Cross will no longer be posted online. Major breaking news stories will be covered through the news stream on Sydneyanglicans.net

"¢ Issues of Southern Cross prior to September 2009 will be available through an archive

"¢ Advertising will be given more prominence on Sydneyanglicans.net

"¢ The Classic Podcast stream (the best evangelical preachers from around the world) will be merged with the Latest Podcast stream (local Sydney Anglican preaching).

"¢ After 6 months evaluating the blog strategy, there is to be a minor re-arrangement of the days some authors are posted. Some bloggers will be posted less frequently.

"¢ There will be fewer film, TV and book reviews.