Bartleby Press

Bartleby Press

Monday, June 4, 2012

Your Website is a Tool of the Future


A question that I am asked most often is where do you see the bulletin going in the future?

My first reaction is don’t you mean to ask what do you see in the future for parish communication?

When you think about parish communication of activities and events the pulpit announcement is first and foremost as the most effective avenue to reach your congregation. Accommodating parish ministries requests for pulpit announcements can add more than a few minutes to the pulpit announcements and most pastors refrain from a multitude of announcements before and or after Mass. The alternatives are the bulletin and the parish website.

The bulletin announcement or bulletin insert is the next obvious choice. Most submissions can turn into a short novelette rather than the announcement of a coming week activity. Often writers are not educated in copy writing and submit long and repetitive entries leaving the bulletin editor hours of unwanted revision, often subjecting themselves to a writer’s scorn for editorial privilege.  The bulletin should have a singular purpose of highlighting all the activities pertaining to the following week. A short synopsis of succinct copy, art and strong attention grabbing headlines will better serve any parish activity. Any more explanation of a ministry other than basic information (who, what, where and how)should be re-directed to the parish website.

As we entered into the age of information (the creation of the web 22 years old this past February 16) the opportunity to provide vast amounts of information about the many ministries is essential for a thriving parish community. Web-editors are becoming as important as the bulletin editor (most are one and the same). Parish administrators are becoming more aware of the advantage of having an up-to-date comprehensive website. Not only can ministries write pages of information they can send a viewer to links providing more insight to a subject Most recently mobile devices have entered the picture.

Our way of communicating has changed the bulletin from a sole source of information to a point of reference for the website. Integrating and keeping continuity between the bulletin and the website is the new challenge. Pastors and parish administrators wanting to know more about Bartleby Press’ bulletin service and website service should visit our website www.bartlebypress.comunder menu item website services.

About the Author: Thomas Miner is the president of Bartleby Press, an Austin bulletin  printing service

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