David Gibson at the October 2009 NYC Religion Communicators Council

David Gibson spoke to the NYC Chapter of the Religion Communicators Council in October.

Photo by Andrea Louie

For the October New York City Chapter of the Religion Communicators Council gathering David Gibson wondered if the drastic reduction of writers at newspapers across the country will result in less coverage of local and community events. David is the editor of ReligionLink, a resource for journalists writing religion-related stories. Published by the Religion Newswriters Association, each issue contains an analysis of a current religious issue and suggested sources for journalists to contact for doing their own stories. David also writes for politicsdaily.com and is the author of two books.

David pointed out that many newspapers across the country are reducing staff, especially religion columnists (and many other sections as well) due to budget, and fewer veteran writers are unable to cover the beat. With this lack of coverage in the local media religious institutions are telling their story through their own media such as websites, blogging, Facebook, etc.

You can listen to the entire presentation here, and then scroll to the bottom of the page.