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Changes to Monitor Commentary

Commentary at the Monitor is evolving to better meet reader interests. We'll be minimizing some elements, but adding others. And while the form of Monitor commentary may change, we'll continue to offer the constructive, thoughtful perspectives you've come to expect from us.

Commentary at the Monitor is evolving. As a reader, you'll be losing some elements, but gaining others. And we'll continue to provide you with the range of constructive, thoughtful perspectives you've come to expect from us.
  • By the Commentary editors

Commentary at the Monitor is evolving. We’re adapting and innovating – in large part to better coordinate with reader interests and habits. But while the form that Monitor commentary takes may be changing, we'll continue to provide you with the constructive, thoughtful perspectives you've come to expect from us.

As a reader, you'll be losing some elements, but gaining others. The biggest change is that the Commentary section will no longer regularly publish general op-eds. At the same time, however, we’re expanding the Global Newsstand feature that runs in our magazine and introducing that content to the web. There you’ll find excerpts from various opinion pieces from around the world, hand-picked by Monitor editors, to give you a broad and accessible survey of global commentary. Keep an eye out for periodic guest editorials, too.

While we are no longer publishing traditional op-eds in the Commentary section, we are now running commentary and analysis in our Energy Voices and New Economy blogs. Please see the criteria for Energy Voices and New Economy submissions here.

This is all part of our effort to allow opinions to live more organically in relevant news sections. As before, readers can find a range of topic-specific commentary and analysis embedded in other Monitor areas: the Backchannels blog, Africa Monitor, and Latin America Monitor in our World news section; Energy Voices; a variety of blogs under our Business section; and our Change Agent blog. We'll soon be incorporating US political commentary in DC Decoder. And doors may be opening for commentary in other sections in the near future as well. Stay tuned.

You’ll also find reflective personal essays in our Home Forum section.

You’ll continue to see thoughtful Monitor’s View pieces both on the web and in our weekly magazine. With their unique lens, these editorials offer readers a truly deeper take on the news.

We still encourage and publish thoughtful letters-to-the-editor in our Readers Write section in the magazine and on the web. And you can always respond to Monitor content and coverage by connecting with us on Facebook, Twitter, and a number of other social media channels (find them here).

Commentary at the Monitor is evolving. And we'll keep evolving. Let us know how we’re doing. We always love to hear from you.

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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.

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