Mystic Post
By Stephen Ryan
A few years ago Medjugorjetoday.tv took the internet by storm by bringing important Medjugorje news stories to a worldwide audience. They did this in a smart, professional manner. It was a wonderful and important news resource.
And its audience grew incredibly fast.
As the pondering dinosaurs of Main Stream Catholic press ignored the Medjugorje phenomena, Medjugorje Today exploded onto the Catholic media scene. The growth in Medjugorje Today’s website traffic and social media prominence was unprecedented in a religious space.
For example, two mainstays of Catholic press, in business for decades, are National Catholic Reporter and National Catholic Register, and over the years, they each have accumulated a little over 85,000 Facebook page “Likes”.
Astonishingly, Medjugorje Today has 119,000 Facebook page ” likes” and they launched sometime in 2007, I believe.
119,000 Facebook “likes” is a really big number in the world of Catholic media.
In today’s new media environment, page views, audience engagement, and social media market share are what matter.
I am not sure if it is amusing or sad that an upstart Catholic internet news organization would surpass in relevance, as measured by social media, two prominent journalistic enterprises because of their editorial ban on writing about Medjugorje.
But now I wonder where Medjugorje Today has gone. I have spoken with people in the know about the situation and they
tell me two things.
1. The Medjugorje Today editor has pulled back from reporting on Medjugorje because of the proclamation made by the Catholic Church against participating in activities that assume that Medjugorje is “authentic”. At Mystic Post we are not troubled by the Church’s statements on Medjugorje because we will accept the Church’s final ruling on Medjugorje and we like to think we are simply reporting on a big story of a spiritual nature. We are discerning.
2. My understanding is Medjugorje Today is charging a monthly fee to “subscribers” who want more timely and exclusive stories about Medjugorje, so they have basically stopped updating their free website.
I am all for free enterprise and if that is the direction Medjugorje Today wants to go then they should have the freedom to do so. I do feel though they may have let a segment of their audience down, however.
At Mystic Post we have a wonderful group of writers who know the Medjugorje story well. We will be bringing you all the breaking news on Medjugorje as quickly as possible. But in today’s new media world we need your help.
It would mean the world to all of us here at Mystic Post if you could LIKE US US ON FACEBOOK – IT MATTERS IN TODAY’S NEW MEDIA WORLD!
Thanks
Stephen Ryan
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