New era on horizon for Free Press religious coverage

In 2019, the Free Press launched our Religion in the News project on little more than a wing and a prayer.

Seven years later, we can count more than 1,200 articles touching on all faiths as a testament to the value of that initiative — the only one of its kind among major Canadian daily newspapers.

Today, I am pleased to announce a new chapter for this project that will broaden its reach and strengthen its journalism.

As part of a new partnership, the Free Press will be working with Broadview, an independent Canadian magazine known for its award-winning coverage of progressive Christianity as well as its broader reporting on the diversity of religious and spiritual life.

Broadview brings to our partnership an impressive track record since its founding in 1829, making it the oldest continuously published magazine in North America, and the second oldest in the English-speaking world.

In its nearly 200-year history, Broadview has won international acclaim for journalistic excellence and garnered more editorial awards than any other faith-based publication in Canada.

By partnering with Broadview, donations to our Religion in News project will now be eligible for charitable tax receipts, a move that will help to ensure its long-term sustainability.

This new chapter will see Free Press editors work with the editorial team at Broadview on stories that will be published on both organizations’ platforms.

This new chapter will also see the addition of a new reporter as our longtime faith writer, John Longhurst, prepares to step down from the project he was instrumental in establishing.

Over the next few months, John will be working with Josiah Neufeld to guide him into the reporting role that has been key to the project’s success.

John’s body of work and passion for this project helped earn him the Order of Canada, an honour that speaks to his character and the importance of the work he has done for the Free Press.

In these increasingly polarized times, his reporting diversified our coverage and delivered a world of understanding.

I think Payam Towfigh, past-president of Manitoba Multifaith Council, may have said it best when he offered this perspective of the Religion in the News project: “Faith reporting by the Free Press helps create a space where the diversity of various faith-based communities can be showcased to create a just and caring society.”

I’m excited to welcome Broadview to the space we have created and to read what Josiah will bring to the project.

And I am ever grateful for the faith readers put in the Free Press.

Paul Samyn is editor of the Free Press. Learn more about the Religion in the News project and make a tax-deductible donation here.

paul.samyn@freepres.mb.ca

The Free Press is committed to covering faith in Manitoba through our Religion in the News project. This reporting continues because readers like you step forward to fund it.

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