CHARLESTON — In honor of February’s designation as Catholic Press Month,
the staff members of The Catholic Miscellany decided to turn the spotlight
on themselves.
Publishing The Miscellany could seem like tedious work, going through
the same process each week like clockwork. On the contrary, it’s anything
but monotonous. The depths of the Catholic faith know no bounds, so the
staff quite literally learns something new each day.
The Catholic Miscellany is the successor to The U.S. Catholic Miscellany,
the first Catholic newspaper in the United States. Bishop John England
founded the paper in 1822 as a means of educating people about the Catholic
faith. During this period in America, Catholicism was often misunderstood.
This process of education remains a challenge 183 years later.
As a publication of the Catholic Church in South Carolina, The Miscellany
portrays Bishop Robert J. Baker’s vision for the church, and Bishop Baker,
in turn, reflects the Holy Father’s vision for universal Catholicism.
So each week the staff sets out to convey these visions to their readers.
Monday and Tuesday are production days at the Miscellany office on
Broad Street. These days are filled with combining stories with photos
and graphics to create a reader-friendly newspaper. The text of the newspaper
consists of stories written by staff and freelance writers, press releases,
commentary, and stories from Catholic News Service.
Catholic News Service is a wire service with a focus on the Catholic
perspective. The organization falls under the auspices of the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops. It provides the most up-to-date information about
the Catholic world. The Miscellany editor keeps a close eye on the wire
service in order to keep readers in touch with the Catholic world outside
of the South Carolina.
Many of the photos in The Miscellany also come from Catholic News Service.
Other photos are taken by the staff or sent in by readers. We frequently
receive more photos than we can print. (Tips for good photos and stories
are in the sidebar accompanying this article.)
The editor decides which stories will run and assigns pages for each
staff member to design. Typically, the local, commentary and worship pages
are laid out by the assistant editor, the graphic designer does the front
page and center layout, and the editor puts together the nation, world
and People & Events pages.
Creating pages includes editing text, choosing photos and graphics,
and using a desktop publishing program to design the pages. The staff proofreads
all of the pages on Tuesdays. The newspaper’s theological consultant reviews
the issue on Tuesday afternoons.
On Wednesday mornings the pages are transferred to templates and given
a final proofing by the staff. After any last-minute changes are made ,
the editor sends the paper via the Internet to a site linked to the Georgetown
Times, where The Miscellany is printed. The next morning a mail house,
Precision Mailing, picks up the newspapers in Georgetown and takes them
to its office in North Charleston. The newspapers are mailed Thursday afternoon
from this location.
The circulation coordinator continually updates the list of subscribers,
which totals about 28,000 households. The circulation list is updated the
first of each month with the mail house.
To get the ball rolling for each issue, stories and ideas are discussed
the Wednesday before production. The staff meets briefly, and the following
days are used to plan, write, gather material for the next week’s issue,
and respond to readers’ calls, e-mails and letters.
In its weekly endeavors, The Miscellany staff strives to produce a
quality product that brings the world of Catholicism to South Carolinians.
Published Feb. 17, 2005
The Catholic Miscellany