‘Boston Globe’ niche website to cover ‘all things Catholic’

The tag line of new website Crux, sums it up neatly: it is "Covering all things Catholic". Crux (at cruxnow.com) is latest vertical offering from the Boston Globe newspaper and it went live this month just 10 weeks after the idea was announced.

Niche verticals tend to appeal to a segment of a newspaper's market but this is being rolled out not as a bolt-on for the Boston Globe site but as a stand-alone product with a potential global audience of many, many millions.

"Now is as good a time as I've ever seen to launch a site like this," said Globe editor Brian McGrory.

“The pope is a champion of inclusiveness, openness and social justice, and he has reignited interest in the Catholic faith and faith in general.”

Current features on the home page include a panel discussion about Pope Francis and his views on immigration, the role of women and the laity in the Catholic Church, and a report on the Catholic League that says it will "sit out" next year's St Patrick's Day Parade in New York because parade organisers are letting a gay organisation march but not an anti-abortion group.

Edited by Boston Globe veteran Teresa Hanafin, Crux is slick and modern-looking and her brief is to approach stories "from a journalistic point of view, rather than one of advocacy or evangelism".

Staffers include CNN and Boston Globe Vatican analyst John L Allen jnr, as the associate editor, as well as a spirituality columnist, an on-the-ground reporter in Rome and a reporter focusing on the role of the church in everyday American life.

"Our goal is to make the site as inclusive as possible," said David Skok, the newspaper's digital adviser. "It is journalistic above all else, so we are not coming at this with any ideological bent."

As well as heavyweight analysis, Crux features typical magazine offerings including travel coverage and recipes.

And, showing its sense of humour, its agony aunt column, which offers advice on readers’ ethical and moral dilemmas, is called OMG.