A sad day for The Beacon, but the light will continue to shine

“There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.
A time to give birth, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant …”

Eccl 3:1–2

BISHOP KEVIN J. SWEENEY

I was hoping that this day would not come, but it has become clearer and clearer during the past two to three years that a decision needed to be made to discontinue the print version of The Beacon, our much beloved diocesan newspaper. [Please see the statement from our editor, Jai Agnish.] As we share this news, foremost in my mind and heart are the faithful readers, who look forward to receiving their weekly copy of The Beacon to read, see, and hear about all the good things that are happening in our diocese. I know some of you have been reading The Beacon since it was first published in January 1967. Whether you receive The Beacon in the mail or when you attend Sunday Mass at your parish, I have learned that we are blessed with many faithful and “faith-filled” readers. I also think of many of our senior priests and others who have moved away from the diocese, who stay connected with the diocese and the news of the diocese by reading The Beacon each week.

Every effort has been made to continue offering the print version of The Beacon for as long as possible. As I think of our faithful readers, I also think of our faithful, hardworking, and dedicated pastors, who, along with their parish trustees and Finance Committees, do their very best to be “good stewards” of the weekly offertory and other donations they receive. From the time I arrived in the diocese, I have heard from pastors expressing concern about the cost of The Beacon. I am not sure if all readers know that the major source of income that supports all the costs of producing The Beacon each week comes from our parishes, which pay a monthly bill according to the number of parishioners registered in the parish.

As we have been evaluating the costs of producing The Beacon, which has increased significantly in recent years, especially the costs for printing and postage, we have been especially aware of the impact of those costs on our parishes. One report prepared for our analysis of the mounting challenges said:

In 2022, parishes provided $639,516 to The Beacon to help fund operations. This represents 76% of operating revenue. In the past 9 years, this number has been as high as $684,000 and as low as $593,000 in 2014. The average over those nine years is $648,000.

As alternative forms of information are readily available in the digital age, for example, on our own diocesan website, The Beacon has become, more and more, a secondary means of communicating information as digital Catholic and diocesan outlets for information become more and more popular with current information from day to day.

The same report also summarized the decline in subscriptions. The Beacon office and our diocesan office receive more and more frequent calls from pastors, asking us to reduce the number of papers that they receive each week because fewer and fewer parishioners are taking copies of the paper home, leaving many copies in the church at the end of each Sunday. Here is some of the information about the decline in circulation over the past 20 years and in more recent years: 

Our records go back to 2003 when the circulation of The Beacon was 31,461. Today, 20,607 copies of the newspaper are delivered each week. That’s a drop of 34 percent. The decline has only accelerated in recent years. According to our website, there are 430,000 Catholics in the Diocese of Paterson. With a Beacon circulation of 20,607, that means we are only reaching 5 percent of the faithful. We are not reaching 409,393.

In the last six years, circulation dropped 22 percent. Each year now, we lose at least 1,100 subscribers. The rapid decline in circulation of The Beacon sends a clear message: people are less and less interested in newspapers.

With subscriptions to The Beacon declining for parishes and individuals, and as accommodations have been made for some parishes in special need, the share of the costs of operating The Beacon is not as evenly distributed as it should be. Over the next year, a more evenly applied standard for supporting diocesan communications will be established following this period of flux.

I have shared many times that, personally, I am not a “big fan” of technology. For many, many years, I read the Daily News “religiously” every morning, starting with the Sports section (on the back page), checking the cartoons, and then reading the world and local news on the front pages of the paper. When I arrived in Paterson, we had a subscription to the Bergen Record, and the paper was delivered to the bishop’s residence each day. After about a year, I found that I was not reading the paper because I had moved towards following the news online, so we canceled the subscription. I am aware that there are many who have not “moved on,” who still enjoy reading the daily newspaper, and many who love receiving and reading The Beacon each week. I hope that, when we discontinue printing The Beacon at the end of December, you will be able to access the online version. While the printed diocesan newspaper will be retired, the goals and the spirit of The Beacon and much of its content will continue to be published online at Beaconnj.org. We look forward to receiving your comments and evaluation of the online content.

In the announcement that we will cease printing The Beacon at the end of December, Jai writes:

“The Beacon has long celebrated the good news of our Catholic faith and illuminated the life-changing work of its people … This is not the end of the story. The Beacon will live on in its new form: Beaconnj.org, where the important stories of our faith community will continue to be passed along.”

I am excited about how we are already continuing the mission of The Beacon via “new media,” such as our diocesan website, social media, and podcasts. The new online form of The Beacon, Beaconnj.org, will allow us to continue building on the “firm foundation” that Bishop Lawrence Casey started in January of 1967 and continued by Bishop Frank Rodimer and Bishop Arthur Serratelli. It is my honor and privilege to strive to follow in their footsteps in so many ways, especially in the mission of evangelization, sharing the Good News of the Gospel. The Beacon has been an important and beloved instrument of evangelization for all these years. I am confident and excited about how it will continue to be part of our diocesan evangelization efforts, which are now in their new form.

I also wish to echo Jai’s words of gratitude to all who have helped make The Beacon the award-winning and nationally recognized Catholic newspaper it has been all these years. In particular, I thank our bishops, who have been its publishers. I also thank the editors, especially Rich Sokerka, the long-time editor and diocesan Communications director, who helped to welcome me to the diocese four years ago and who generously stayed on a few extra years before retiring in June of 2022. I am also grateful to all the past and current reporters, writers, finance, and production staff. I am glad that many of the current staff will remain with us and will work together to make Beaconnj.org a worthy successor to the print version of The Beacon.

I also want to thank our current editor and diocesan Communications Director Jai Agnish. In his two-plus years with us, Jai has been deeply committed to leading us into the “digital age.” Along with many of our diocesan leaders, we have made this decision with the utmost care, reflection, and prayer.

In conclusion, I express my profound gratitude to the faithful readers of The Beacon. Like every ministry that thrives in the Diocese of Paterson, it is by God’s grace and your unfailing generosity that The Beacon has thrived. The work of communication will continue through the goodness of many like you. The establishment of The Beacon, which took place 30 years after the founding of the Diocese of Paterson in 1937, was a significant moment in our history. We are at another hopeful and significant juncture.

If The Beacon’s founders reflected on our own experience, they might say, “By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it (1 Corinthians 10:11).” Like our predecessors in faith, we hand on the faith and we look ahead confidently, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:6–7). Through God’s goodness and your support, the light of The Beacon will not dim.

Many of us hoped that this day would not come, but we are now convinced that this is a decision that needs to be made. Many of us will miss the print version of The Beacon, but I am very confident that its light will continue to shine.