Last year the Australian newspaper and website, Eternity, closed down. Founded by John Sandeman, who now blogs here, Eternity had provided a newspaper and then a website which was effective and encouraging in promoting Christianity in Australia.
It had a print circulation of 100,000 and over 5 million website views per year. Having been acquired by the Bible Society they decided to close it down last April.
The Bible Society had decided in 2022 to adopt a “good news” policy. In other words, they were not going to report controversy, failure or sin. I guess it was figured that good news sells. But it was a completely unrealistic picture. And it resulted in an unrealistic view of the church and the gospel. Christianity as Disney or a Hallmark card is not real Christianity. The result was a reduced audience and reduced advertising revenue.
I had a personal encounter with this policy when I was asked to write a review of a book by a well-known Australian author. It was a dreadful book – well-written heresy. I said so. And was told my review would not be published. It was too negative and might upset some readers who really liked the author.
There is surely a lesson here for the wider Christian media and church. There is of course a danger of being too negative – displaying a “woe is me; we are all doomed” perspective on the church and culture. But there is a danger of sugar coating everything and presenting a picture of the gospel that is shallow and useless.
In a world where mainstream news sources are increasingly partisan and distrusted, and social media varies from the sublime to the ridiculous, it is more essential than ever that reliable Christian media provides balanced and accurate reporting on the church and the wider culture. There is a gap left by the demise of Eternity in Australia which has yet to be filled.
This article was first published in Evangelicals Now – here
Give me a call David. See how you’re doing. Jim 🙂
Thanks David. Timely reflection on publication changes and some reasons. Eternity was one of many print based and/or then online publications to close in the last decade. This had a significant impact on the Australasian Religious Press Association (founded 1974), which held its final gathering and conference last year 2024. Many ARPA members also belonged to The Australasian Catholic Press Association continues (founded 1955) which continues. Good to know John continues to write and encourage news and opinion at his ‘The Other Cheek’.
The Bible Society wrote to me with a very corporate sounding letter from a Ms Somebody. I had been an Open the Book team leader for 8 years and previously served on a different team for 4 years. She informed me that they wanted £20 per year for every volunteer on the team. Previously the Team Leader registered the team and the local church did the DBS checks and we paid for their materials. They now wanted to ditch the old materials and we had to buy again! We also could not use the old materials after a certain date. I decided that my retirement had come.