''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

Mary Baker Eddy Mary Baker Eddy (July 16, 1821 – December 3, 1910) was an American religious leader and author who founded The Church of Christ, Scientist, in New England in 1879. She also founded ''The Christian Science Monitor'', a Pulitzer Prize-winning se ...

, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. , the print circulation was 75,052. According to the organization's website, "the Monitor's global approach is reflected in how Mary Baker Eddy described its object as 'To injure no man, but to bless all mankind.' The aim is to embrace the human family, shedding light with the conviction that understanding the world's problems and possibilities moves us towards solutions." ''The Christian Science Monitor'' has won seven Pulitzer Prizes and more than a dozen

Overseas Press Club awards The Overseas Press Club of America (OPC) was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member, as was the war correspondent Peggy Hull. The club seeks to maintain ...

Reporting

Despite its name, the ''Monitor'' is not a religious-themed paper, and does not promote the

doctrine Doctrine (from la, doctrina, meaning "teaching, instruction") is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a belief syste ...

of its patron, the Church of Christ, Scientist. However, at its founder Eddy's request, a religious article has appeared near the end of every issue of the ''Monitor''. The paper has been known for avoiding sensationalism, producing a "distinctive brand of nonhysterical journalism". In 1997, the '' Washington Report on Middle East Affairs'', a publication critical of United States policy in the Middle East, praised the ''Monitor'' for its objective and informative coverage of Islam and the Middle East. During the 27 years while Nelson Mandela was in prison in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

after having been convicted of sabotage, among other charges, ''The Christian Science Monitor'' was one of the newspapers he was allowed to read. Five months after his release, Mandela visited Boston and stopped by the ''Monitor'' offices, telling the staff "The ''Monitor'' continues to give me hope and confidence for the world's future," and thanking them for their "unwavering coverage of apartheid." He called the ''Monitor'' "one of the more important voices covering events in South Africa." During the era of " McCarthyism", a term first coined by the ''Monitor'', the paper was one of the earliest and most consistent critics of US Senator Joseph McCarthy. In 2006, Jill Carroll, a freelance reporter for the ''Monitor'', was kidnapped in Baghdad, and released safely after 82 days. Although Carroll was initially a freelancer, the paper worked tirelessly for her release, even hiring her as a staff writer shortly after her abduction to ensure that she had financial benefits. Beginning in August 2006, the ''Monitor'' published an account of Carroll's kidnapping and subsequent release, with first-person reporting from Carroll and others involved.

Circulation

The paper's circulation has ranged widely, from a peak of over 223,000 in 1970, to just under 56,000 shortly before the suspension of the daily print edition in 2009.
, Bloomberg Businessweek, October 28, 2008. Partially in response to declining circulation and the struggle to earn a profit, the church's directors and the manager of the Christian Science Publishing Society were purportedly forced to plan cutbacks and closures (later denied), which led in 1989 to the mass protest resignations by its chief editor

Kay Fanning Katherine "Kay" Fanning (October 18, 1927 – October 19, 2000) was an American journalist and newspaper editor and publisher. She was editor and publisher of the ''Anchorage Daily News''. In 1983, she became editor of the ''Christian Science Mon ...

(an ASNE president and former editor of the '' Anchorage Daily News''), managing editor David Anable, associate editor David Winder, and several other newsroom staff. Those developments also presaged administrative moves to scale back the print newspaper in favor of expansions into radio, a magazine, shortwave broadcasting, and television. Expenses, however, rapidly outpaced revenues, contradicting predictions by church directors. On the brink of bankruptcy, the board was forced to close the broadcast programs in 1992. By late 2011, the ''Monitor'' was receiving an average of about 22 million hits per month on its website, slightly below the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

''. In 2017, the ''Monitor'' put up a paywall on its content, and in 2018, there were approximately 10,000 subscriptions to the ''Monitor Daily'' email service.

History

Founding

The ''Monitor'''s inception was, in part, a response by its founder

to the journalism of her day, which relentlessly covered the sensations and scandals surrounding her new religion with varying accuracy. In addition,

Joseph Pulitzer Joseph Pulitzer ( ; born Pulitzer József, ; April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911) was a Hungarian-American politician and newspaper publisher of the '' St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' and the ''New York World''. He became a leading national figure in ...

's '' New York World'' was consistently critical of Eddy, and this, along with a derogatory article in ''

McClure's ''McClure's'' or ''McClure's Magazine'' (1893–1929) was an American illustrated monthly periodical popular at the turn of the 20th century. The magazine is credited with having started the tradition of muckraking journalism ( investigative, wa ...

'', furthered Eddy's decision to found her own media outlet. Eddy also required the inclusion of " Christian Science" in the paper's name, over initial opposition by some of her advisors who thought the religious reference might repel a

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

audience. Eddy also saw a vital need to counteract the fear often spread by media reporting:

Looking over the newspapers of the day, one naturally reflects that it is dangerous to live, so loaded with disease seems the very air. These descriptions carry fears to many minds, to be depicted in some future time upon the body. A periodical of our own will counteract to some extent this public nuisance; for through our paper, at the price at which we shall issue it, we shall be able to reach many homes with healing, purifying thought.

Eddy declared that the ''Monitor'''s mission should be "to injure no man, but to bless all mankind".

Radio and television

MonitoRadio was a radio service produced by the Church of Christ, Scientist between 1984 and 1997. It featured several one-hour news broadcasts a day, as well as top of the hour news bulletins. The service was widely heard on public radio stations throughout the United States. The Monitor later launched an international broadcast over shortwave radio, called the World Service of the Christian Science Monitor. Weekdays were news-led, but weekend schedules were exclusively dedicated to religious programming. That service ceased operations on June 28, 1997. In 1986, the Monitor started producing a current affairs television series, ''The Christian Science Monitor Reports,'' which was distributed via syndication to television stations across the United States. In 1988, the Christian Science Monitor Reports won a Peabody Award for a series of reports on Islamic fundamentalism. That same year, the program was canceled and the Monitor created a daily television program, ''World Monitor'', anchored by former NBC correspondent John Hart, which was initially shown on the Discovery Channel. In 1991, World Monitor moved to the Monitor Channel, a 24-hour news and information channel. The channel launched on May 1, 1991, with programming from its Boston TV station, WQTV. The only religious programming on the channel was a five-minute Christian Science program early each morning. In 1992, after eleven months on the air, the service was shut down amid huge financial losses. Programming from the Monitor Channel was also carried nationally via the WWOR EMI Service (a nationally oriented feed of New Jersey TV station WWOR-TV, launched in 1990 due to the SyndEx laws put into place the year prior).

Modernization

The print edition continued to struggle for readership, and, in 2004, faced a renewed mandate from the church to earn a profit. Subsequently, the ''Monitor'' began relying more on the Internet as an integral part of its business model. The ''Monitor'' was one of the first newspapers to put its text online in 1996, and was also one of the first to launch a PDF edition in 2001. It was also an early pioneer of RSS feeds. In 2005, Richard Bergenheim, a

Christian Science practitioner A Christian Science practitioner is an individual who prays for others according to the teachings of Christian Science.Vitello, Paul"Christian Science Church Seeks Truce With Modern Medicine" ''The New York Times'', March 23, 2010. Treatment is non- ...

, was named the new editor. Shortly before his death in 2008, Bergenheim was replaced by a veteran '' Boston Globe'' editor and former ''Monitor'' reporter John Yemma. In October 2008, citing net losses of $US18.9 million per year versus $US12.5 million in annual revenue, the ''Monitor'' announced that it would cease printing daily and instead print weekly editions starting in April 2009. The last daily print edition was published on March 27, 2009. The weekly magazine follows on from the ''Monitor'' London edition, also a weekly, launched in 1960 and the weekly World Edition which replaced the London edition in 1974. Mark Sappenfield became the editor in March 2017.

Notable editors and staff (past and present)

* Willis J. Abbot, editor and author * Clay Bennett, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist * Richard Bergenheim, editor *

Erwin Canham Erwin Dain Canham (February 13, 1904 – January 3, 1982) was an American journalist and author. He was best known for his work as the longest-serving editor of ''The Christian Science Monitor''. He also was the first, and last, Resident Commissio ...

, longtime editor, author * Jill Carroll, reporter, kidnapped for 82 days in 2006 *

William Henry Chamberlin William Henry Chamberlin (February 17, 1897 – September 12, 1969) was an American historian and journalist. He was the author of several books about the Cold War, communism, and foreign policy, including ''The Russian Revolution 1917-1921'' (19 ...

, reporter, author * Grover Clark, China correspondent * John K. Cooley, longtime contributing editor * Roscoe Drummond, longtime reporter and editor *

, editor, first woman to edit an American national newspaper *

John Gould John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, ...

, longtime columnist, author * Roland R. Harrison, editor * Joseph C. Harsch,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, longtime reporter * Sir

Harold Hobson Sir Harold Hobson CBE, (4 August 1904 – 12 March 1992) was an English drama critic and author. Early life and education Hobson was born in Thorpe Hesley near Rotherham then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He attended Sheffield Gramm ...

, longtime drama critic * John Hughes, Pulitzer Prize winner, editor, author * Reuben H. Markham, longtime reporter, author * Luix Overbea, journalist, founding member of National Association of Black Journalists *

Scott Peterson Scott Lee Peterson (born October 24, 1972) is an American convicted murderer. In 2004, he was convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife, Laci, who was pregnant at the time, and the second-degree murder of their unborn son, Conner, in Mod ...

, longtime reporter, author * Cora Rigby, first woman at a major paper to head a Washington news bureau, co-founder of the Women's National Press Club. * David S. Rohde, Pulitzer Prize winner *

Richard Strout Richard Lee Strout (March 14, 1898 – August 19, 1990) was an American journalist and commentator. He was national correspondent for the ''Christian Science Monitor'' from 1923 and he wrote the "TRB from Washington" column for ''The New Republic ...

, Pulitzer Prize winner * Nate White, Gerald Loeb Newspaper Award winner * Colin Woodard, correspondent * Paul Wohl, longtime political commentator

Awards

''Monitor'' staff have been the recipients of seven Pulitzer Prizes for their work on the Monitor: *

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 crashes in a snowstorm. All 19 ...

, Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting: Edmund Stevens, for his series of 43 articles written over a three-year residence in Moscow entitled, "This Is Russia Uncensored". *

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

, Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting: R. John Hughes, For his thorough reporting of Indonesia's attempted

Transition to the New Order Indonesia's transition to the New Order in the mid-1960s ousted the country's first president, Sukarno, after 22 years in the position. One of the most tumultuous periods in the country's modern history, it was the commencement of Suharto's ...

in 1965 and the purge that followed in 1965–66. * 1968,

Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting This Pulitzer Prize has been awarded since 1942 for a distinguished example of reporting on national affairs in the United States. In its first six years (1942–1947), it was called the Pulitzer Prize for Telegraphic Reporting – National. Li ...

: Howard James, for his series of articles, ''Crisis in the Courts''. * 1969,

: Robert Cahn, for his inquiry into the future of the United States' national parks and the methods that may help to preserve them. * 1978, Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards, Journalism:

, for distinguished commentary from Washington over many years as staff correspondent for The ''

Christian Science Monitor Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρισ ...

'' and contributor to '' The New Republic''. * 1996, Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting:

David Rohde David Stephenson Rohde (born August 7, 1967) is an American author and investigative journalist who currently serves as the online news director for ''The New Yorker''. While a reporter for ''The Christian Science Monitor'', he won the Pulitzer ...

, for his persistent on-site reporting of the slaughter of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in the

Srebrenica Genocide The Srebrenica massacre ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Masakr u Srebrenici, Масакр у Сребреници), also known as the Srebrenica genocide ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Genocid u Srebrenici, Геноцид у Сребрен ...

. * 2002,

Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning The Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary is one of the fourteen Pulitzer Prizes that is annually awarded for journalism in the United States. It is the successor to the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning awarded from 1922 t ...

: Clay Bennett

References

External links

* *
About the ''Monitor''

Locations of Reading Rooms selling the Monitor Weekly
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Christian Science in Massachusetts International newspapers National newspapers published in the United States Newspapers published in Boston Newspapers established in 1908 1908 establishments in Massachusetts Christian newspapers Online newspapers with defunct print editions Pulitzer Prize-winning newspapers Weekly newspapers published in the United States