Skip to footer

Readers write: New Monitor design

|
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
  • By Monitor readers

New Monitor design

I just received the newly formatted April 22 & 29 Weekly Print Edition. It’s absolutely marvelous – something to look forward to each week in the mail. The pictures enlivened the whole issue. The articles were clearly separate but came together as a whole message. And more: I could clearly isolate each article as I read it, which made my reading experience very efficient. Yet I also felt drawn to the entire issue. It was all clearly and effectively written. I’m also a big fan of the puzzle page. I usually do a lot of browsing when I read the Weekly magazine, but I read most of this issue already, and it just arrived yesterday. I look forward to the next. Congratulations to a marvelous staff and leadership. Thank you.
Pat Goddard
Annandale, Virginia 

I have been a subscriber since 1972 and have found each iteration of the Monitor to be an advance. The new Weekly design refresh is a home run in my opinion! Thank you to all involved for the hard work and dedication to excellent journalism and presentation.
Louis Didier
Yuma, Arizona

Why We Wrote This

Letters to the editor for the May 20, 2019 weekly magazine.

I like the new design format for the Weekly magazine, but I miss the five “Staff Picks” – I always read the suggestions and often followed them. I hope they will appear at least occasionally.
Eric Houghton
Dunedin, Florida

Editor’s note: “Staff Picks” will continue to appear – just slightly less often, and under the name “Our Picks.” We think this will give us the opportunity to be a little more selective about what we recommend.

I am writing to comment on the new design of the Monitor Weekly. First: Refreshing any reading material also refreshes the “eye.” Good job. I also really appreciate the addition of the “Why We Wrote This” asides. They are clearly positioned within the article so they can’t be missed – and in today’s world, where it seems many are looking for the reason why, those asides provide a succinct answer.
Martha F. Barkley
Santa Rosa, California

As a reader of The Christian Science Monitor since the days of Snubs the Dog, I deeply appreciate the steps that have and are being taken to keep the content and presentation “abreast of the times.” The Monitor Daily and Weekly are superb. They are beacons of light in today’s miasma of mass communication. 
Pat Hay
Laguna Hills, California

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Readers write: New Monitor design
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Readers-Respond/2019/0518/Readers-write-New-Monitor-design
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe