RICHMOND — The Religious Herald has launched a publishing partnership with three other Baptist news organizations which will allow it to expand its news coverage and offer more attractive and dynamic design features.
Joining the Herald in the venture — probably a first for Baptist communications — are the Dallas-based Baptist Standard, newsjournal of the Baptist General Convention of Texas; Word & Way, a Jefferson City, Mo.-based publication for Missouri Baptists; and Associated Baptist Press, an independent news service based in Jacksonville, Fla.
The Herald, Standard and Word & Way — all of which publish every other week — will share a common design appearance; their editorial staff, as well as ABP's, will collaborate on stories for each issue; and a number of pages with national and international news stories and features will be shared.
The partnership doesn't alter the Herald's governing board or its relationship to the Baptist General Association of Virginia, but it will significantly enhance its ministry, said editor Jim White.
“This will let us offer Virginia Baptists a much better product,” said White. “It will in-crease not only national and international coverage but will expand our state and regional coverage, and allow us to explore interests relevant to Virginia Baptist churches.”
Mike Wilkins, chair of the Herald's board of trustees, also praised the venture. “This new informal partnership based on the historic Baptist principle of cooperation enhances the ministry of the Religious Herald by allowing us to report stories and issues of interest to Virginia Baptists with a greater range and depth than ever possible before,” said Wilkins, pastor of Manly Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington.
White said a key feature of the partnership is a “package” of stories in each issue that will focus on a specific topic. “These packages — which will start on the front page and continue inside — won't be breaking news stories but rather an examination of timely issues, such as the challenges facing our churches ‘in the interim' that we're carrying in the current Herald.”
Upcoming topics will include ministry to immigrants, the future of district associations, the role of military chaplains and the tragedy of clergy sexual abuse, said White. Each of those packages also will be distributed by ABP to its national audience.
A partnership involving Baptist newspapers in three widely-spaced geographic areas — the Mid-Atlantic, the Southwest and the Midwest — also offers possibilities to expand coverage to include regional as well as state interests, said White. “We Virginia Baptists have much in common with Baptists in North Carolina, Maryland, Delaware and D.C.,” he said. “Baptists in the Old Dominion have a natural interest in Baptist life going on around us, and I believe the Herald has something to offer Baptists in other Mid-Atlantic states.”
“This historic collaboration tangibly and symbolically reverses the recent trend toward fragmentation among Baptists,” said Marv Knox, editor of the Baptist Standard. “We're working together to do something much bigger and better than we could do on our own.
“By collaborating, the three newspapers and ABP will provide stronger, more insightful coverage for all our readers” Knox said. “And by sharing ideas from Baptists across the country, we will broaden the perspectives of Baptists in each of our regions.”
Bill Webb, editor of Word & Way, said, “We are pleased that this partnership brings together the best from three Baptist newspapers and a Baptist news service that share commitments to integrity and excellence. Word & Way's efforts to challenge readers to be ‘doers of the word and not hearers only' (James 1:22) will only be enhanced in this exciting venture.”