Editor's Report

Catholic New York to Publish Monthly Section in Spanish

Posted

Beginning in September, Catholic New York will publish a monthly section of eight to 12 pages in Spanish as part of its regular newspaper edition.

The pullout section is planned to run in the second issue of each month. Catholic New York, a biweekly newspaper, is published 26 times each year.

The Spanish-language section, which has been in the planning stages for several months, was originally conceived as a way to reach out to the growing population of Hispanic/Latino Catholics in the Archdiocese of New York and to capitalize on Catholic New York’s mission to serve as a voice of unity in the archdiocese.

The new section will make its debut on Sept. 27, which will mark the 37th anniversary of Catholic New York’s first issue in 1981.

“I’m delighted Catholic New York is working to bring the skills and resources of its talented staff to such an important and worthy endeavor,” Cardinal Dolan said in a statement this week.

“One of our goals as an archdiocese is to serve as a united community of faith, and this outreach to our Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters is a great way to accomplish that,” the cardinal said.

The content in each monthly section will be a mix of news and features stories highlighting events and information of interest to the Latino and Hispanic population of the archdiocese; features on a parish or Catholic personality; stories from Catholic News Service; columns by current and new writers; event listings; paid advertising; and a few other features as well.

Armando Machado, who is currently a staff reporter at Catholic New York, will have expanded responsibilities in the Spanish-language section. Machado, who is bilingual, will cover many of the stories in the new section. Other CNY staff members and freelancers will also contribute to the coverage.

The staff of Catholic New York also anticipates a continued collaborative relationship with the archdiocesan Hispanic Ministry Office under its director, Wanda Vasquez, and Father Lorenzo Ato, director of Hispanic communications, who is a CNY columnist and has assisted CNY with proofreading through the years. Staff members also have helped with additional duties, including photography.

Frankly, it would be much harder to undertake a project of this nature without the expertise and assistance of personnel from other archdiocesan offices.

Our normal pattern to this point has been to publish two or three pages of Spanish-language material in each issue. As we embark on this new venture, we expect to continue to do that in the other CNY issues.

The issue with the Spanish-language section will be sent to CNY’s full circulation run of 126,500. Efforts will be explored to bring increased circulation to the large number of parishes in the archdiocese with significant Hispanic/Latino communities.

Part of the revamping of our website, cny.org, which took effect last month, was an added feature that offers a Google Translate function for all CNY stories, from Spanish to English, and vice versa. Since 2013, our website has also hosted an archived E-edition of every issue we publish.