It also is recommending that the General Assembly Mission Council “establish a secure stream of funding” for the news service, possibly drawing both from the mission budget and from per capita funds.
And it’s suggesting a revision of the editorial guidelines established for the news service in 1995. The proposed revised guidelines say the news service should adhere to “the highest standards of professional reporting” and have an identity that’s separate from denominational public relations efforts. The guidelines also stress both editorial freedom and editorial responsibility.
The task force also wants to establish an editorial board for the Presbyterian News Service. The proposal is that the board be comprised of three members of the General Assembly Mission Council, selected by the chair of the council, plus two Presbyterians with expertise in journalism, selected by the editor of the news service. The editorial board would provide “advice and counsel” to the news service and would report to the General Assembly Mission Council’s Executive Committee.
The council voted a year ago to create the task force, with the review coming at a time when Karen Schmidt, the PC(USA)’s deputy executive director for communications and funds development, has been taking a close look at the denomination’s overall communications strategy. The council will vote on the task force’s recommendations at its meeting in Louisville Sept. 23-25.
The question of what role the news service should play has been touchy for a number of reasons. The denomination is trying to figure out how to effectively communicate directly with members and with congregations at a time of fast-changing technology — and when the PC(USA) is losing members and would like to raise more money. Council members want some way to tell the “good news” of the denomination more effectively.
And there continue to be questions of whether the news service should have editorial freedom or be a part of the overall public relations strategy of the church — or some mixture of both. In 2002, the council narrowly voted 22 to 21 not to revise the role of the news service.
The new task force report states that its research shows that Presbyterians place a high priority on the news service and that it “offers the most reliable means the church has to get its story out.” It also states that the accountability of the news service is not to the denomination’s management team but “directly to the members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).”
Reduced funding for the news service “would lead to fewer persons knowing the church and its needs, which would lead to less funding for the whole mission of the church,” the report states.
The task force concluded that the news service is not in a position to be self-funded or self-sustaining, and that “more secure forms of funding” should be investigated, possibly through the Presbyterian Foundation or through combining funding for the news service from both the mission and per-capita budgets.
And the revised editorial guidelines state that the news service should follow the journalistic standards set by the Associated Church Press and the code of ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists.
