Dear Friends
We are nearing a turning point in the evolution of communications across our diocese, particularly in regard to our Diocesan Magazines.
As has been flagged on several previous occasions, one of the outstanding issues in achieving full practical convergence between the former dioceses of Limerick / Killaloe and Tuam since their amalgamation almost three years ago has been the continued existence of two magazines, Newslink and Tidings.
Yet we are a single diocesan family now, under a single bishop, meeting together in one conjoint synod, engaging strategically in witness and mission together. Hence it goes without saying that we need to share news, insights, visions and stories with one another across the whole bishopric. It may seem a very long way from Kenmare to Ballina, or from Roscrea to Achill, but it is still incumbent on us to grow together as a single family. Already we have achieved this with our online platforms … now it is time to make a decisive move in relation to the print media. We acknowledge that this has involved the challenging task of bringing together all that is best in two existing publications with quite different styles and business models. We also recognise the time and generosity that this process has demanded of those involved in preparatory discussions on behalf of the two magazines.
But it is time to set out our conclusions and decisions to you, the reader.
So from 2025 there will be a single diocesan magazine for Tuam Limerick and Killaloe and it will appear quarterly : the plan is to publish it at the close of February, May, August and November. It will also be available in an electronic format as well as in print. We have made a brave and I think visionary decision that the new publication will not have a cover price – here we are following existing practice in Tuam where the present quarterly Tidings is provided free to the reader, a model which we are assured has allowed it to reach places and people, including in an ecumenical context, which would not have been possible had it been dependent on individual subscriptions.
Obviously nothing comes without costs and bills for formatting, production and distribution have to be met. Here however, I want to acknowledge with great appreciation the generosity and commitment of our Newslink editorial team, Ros Stevenson and Janet Bray, who do what they do entirely as a labour of love. With amazing dedication and vision, they have agreed to continue to edit the new magazine, and to lead the team across the bishopric who will make it a reality. In this context particular grateful mention must be made of Andrea Wills who will continue to gather the notes from the Tuam parishes and forward them on. However, other aspects of the plan will involve both income and expenditure. Hence we are grateful for the considerable support of the Diocesan Councils in investing in this initiative in our outreach and communications, we recognise our dependence on advertisers (and we need many more of them), we of course will be grateful for individual donations and we are working possibly to procure some central church support for a project which is part of the cementing of this geographically huge ‘new ‘ diocese … and hitherto the wider church has not been found wanting when it has come to affirming that process of Western cementing.
It is also likely that we will have to pass some relatively modest distribution costs on to a number of receiving parishes, so that their batch of magazines for onward local consumption reaches them reliably and on time. These costs will not be vast, and we trust that parishes will wait to encourage the project and be willing to absorb them. We will also need to know in the early stages a reasonably accurate figure of how many copies parishes wish to receive. We hope they will seek to expand circulation beyond the traditional and valued readership particularly of Newslink, and to get copies into new contexts … but equally we need avoid waste.
While the long term future of print media is always challenging these days, we are convinced that there are many ‘out there’ who continue to value a regular magazine that is attractive, readable , relevant and ( to use a word sometimes favoured in journalism ) ‘punchy ‘. The new magazine will also of course stand as a record of our times in the life of the church, and future local historians will draw on its archived back numbers as a significant source. Quarterly publication will mean a different style of parish notes … they must not become to an excessive extent accounts of events which are distant in memory by the time they are described in print … and there will need to be other varied feature articles too. In assembling the contents the editors will be much guided by the recent survey of readers’ thoughts and hopes concerning an ‘ideal ‘ diocesan magazine.
So we wish the ship we are about to launch safe and joyful sailing, and we commend the team that are willing to place themselves on her bridge. As to the title ! This has been much discussed. Both of the existing titles have a brand loyalty, and we gather that Tidings as a title has particular visibility in the wider community. Some felt therefore that TLK Tidings might be the way to go, and indeed we may use it as an English sub-title, but there was also a desire for freshness. A suggestion was therefore made that we should find a distinctive phrase in Irish for the main title, thus marking imaginatively and optimistically a new phase in the story of our communications, while capturing the spirit of all that has been. So the proposed title is
DEA – SCÉALA
Those of you who have an Irish Bible to hand will discover that this is the phrase used in respect of the ‘Good Tidings of great joy ‘ which the angels bring to the listening shepherds at the first Christmas. (see Luke 2.10). So our new magazine will be a positive production, a sharing of joyful Tidings, a messenger of hope …. It will be about the stories and the songs which bind us together as one family in this great diocese of the West. We pray that God’s blessing will rest upon the labours of all who seek to make it happen.
Le gach dea ghui
Michael Tuam Limerick and Killaloe
The current editions of both magazines, Newslink and Tidings are out now
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