This article comes from the USCCB's website. I think it is highly significant that this move comes only days after the bishops lost their battle with Obama over health care.
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USCCB Communications Department Undergoing Reorganization
WASHINGTON—The Department of Communications of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will undergo reorganization, effective May 1."These changes will allow us to tap the benefits of the rapidly changing media environment around us," said Helen Osman, secretary of the Communications Department.
Under the new design, the department will include two new offices, the Office of Creative Services and Office of Customer and Client Relations, and a unit for Project Management in the Office of the Secretary for Communications.
The Office for Media Relations and Catholic News Service (CNS), the largest English-language religion news-gathering service in the world, will continue as part of the Communications Department.
Under the reorganization, services now within USCCB Publishing and Digital Media will be provided through the three new entities. The business and marketing efforts of Publishing and CNS will be merged into one Customer and Client Relations Office.
In another change, the work of the Office of Film and Broadcasting (OFB) will be assumed into CNS, currently the major distributor of OFB reviews. With the work of the Publishing, Digital Media and OFB absorbed into other structures, Publishing and Digital Media, located in Washington, and OFB, in New York, will no longer exist as stand-alone offices.
Under the reorganization the Office of Media Relation will increase in size and expand its outreach through social media, also known as Web 2.0.
Another significant change in the Communications Department will be the addition of staff to oversee Spanish-language translations.
Helen Osman announced the changes March 16. She noted that the reorganization followed a review of the media landscape of the Catholic Church in the United States, with its growing Hispanic population and exploding use of social media.
“We are in a paradigm shift in how people receive information, as profound as when the printing press was invented,” she said. “It is important that the Church not only provide its wisdom regarding the primary dignity of the human person in this information evolution, but also take advantage of the opportunities this new media ecology provides.”
“The new creative services office,” she said, “will produce material to be available in print and digital forms – video, audio, text, Web, mobile devices and other emerging technology.” Staff of the office will include members of the former Publishing office’s Development staff and USCCB Digital Media staff.
Promoting, marketing, selling and distributing that material will be done by a Customer and Client Relations Office team, that includes staff from the former Publishing’s Marketing and Customer Service team and CNS’s Client Services.
The Project Management team will oversee development of multi-media projects. This builds on a process already successfully used at the USCCB. With continued efforts to implement the activities of the bishops’ priorities and other collaborative projects, members of this team will be able to provide effective and cohesive communication support for all USCCB projects.
The U.S. bishops have set five priority initiatives for the USCCB. They include: promotion of marriage; faith formation with an emphasis on sacramental practice; promotion of vocations to the priesthood and religious life; life and dignity of the human person; and cultural diversity, with a particular emphasis on Hispanics.
