Bishop names new communications director/editor of The Beacon

CLIFTON  Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney recently appointed Jai Agnish as the new Director of Communications for the Diocese of Paterson. Agnish, an award-winning multi-media journalist with broad experience across the communications and public relations field, also will serve as editor of The Beacon, the Diocese’s weekly newspaper.

He succeeds Richard Sokerka, a highly regarded leader who faithfully served the Diocese for more than 32 years under three different bishops as Editor/GM of The Beacon and Communications Director. Sokerka, also known for his award-winning weekly editorial column, will remain on through the summer to assist in the transition and will retire on Sept. 7.

“I was impressed with Jai’s news experience and the work he did for the Archdiocese of Newark under Cardinal Joseph Tobin,” Bishop Sweeney said of the appointment. “His work in both digital and traditional media, his familiarity with the Diocese, and his collaborative leadership style are a great fit for us.”

For Agnish, the appointment is a home­­coming of sorts, having grown up in the Diocese of Paterson, where he attended Mass and was confirmed at Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish in West Milford.

“I grew up reading The Beacon, and my parents were featured in an edition of the newspaper years ago for missionary work they did with a parish in India,” Agnish said. “I’m thrilled to be joining the Diocese of Paterson, and I’m grateful for this opportunity to work directly with Bishop Sweeney and his leadership team.”

Most recently, Agnish was Communi­cations Mana­ger for the Archdiocese of Newark for the last two-and-a-half years. In this multi­faceted role, Agnish built JerseyCatholic.org, the official news site of the archdiocese, and developed a video story-telling culture that resulted in a viral priest ordination video that reached hundreds of thousands of people on social media. He was named the runner-up for multimedia journalist of the year by the Catholic Media Association in his first year in Catholic communications in the Newark Archdiocese.

“I loved my time in Newark,” Agnish said. “We accomplished so much during really challenging times. I won’t forget driving into the city on empty streets during the pandemic lockdown to broadcast Cardinal Tobin’s livestream Mass.”

Before joining the Archdiocese of Newark, Agnish was a reporter and editor with The Record and Northjersey.com for more than 15 years. Ten of those years were spent as editor of the weekly AIM News­paper group, where he managed a team of writers and photographers and the news­paper’s web and social media presence.

When those newspapers were discontinued under new ownership, Agnish returned to reporting in the very different landscape of multi-media journalism. He excelled, producing high-performing articles and videos for Northjersey.com and numerous front-page articles for The Record. He covered local town and school news, the environment, and development and was on the weekend breaking news desk rotation.

“I’m a journalist and a storyteller through and through,” Agnish said. “Those last couple of years with The Record were exciting but also very trying. I witnessed the unwinding and reinvention of print journalism up close.”

At one point, Agnish was planning to leave journalism and become a commercial airline pilot. He went so far as to get his commercial single-engine pilot’s license, but when he discovered the joy of working for the Catholic Church in the communications area, he decided to stay in the field.

“God had a different plan for me,” Agnish said. “Here, I have the opportunity to offer my professional experience and gifts to the Church and do meaningful and lasting work.”