The Christian Science Monitor

• 1. Founding And Mission

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  Mary Baker Eddy established The Christian Science Monitor in 1908 as a daily newspaper based in Boston. She created the outlet to counter sensationalist media coverage of her new religious movement, Christian Science. At that time, newspapers relentlessly covered scandals surrounding her work with varying accuracy. Joseph Pulitzer's New York World consistently criticized Eddy, and a derogatory article in McClure's furthered her decision to found her own media outlet. Eddy required the inclusion of "Christian Science" in the paper's name despite initial opposition from advisors who feared it might repel secular audiences. She declared the mission should be to spread undivided the Science that operates unspent. Looking over the newspapers of the day, one naturally reflects that it is dangerous to live so loaded with disease seems the very air. These descriptions carry fears to many minds to be depicted in some future time upon the body. A periodical of our own will counteract to some extent this public nuisance. Through our paper at the price at which we shall issue it we shall be able to reach many homes with healing purifying thought.

• 2. Evolution Of Formats

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  MonitoRadio was a radio service produced by the Church of Christ Scientist between 1984 and 1997. It featured several one-hour news broadcasts a day as well as top-of-the-hour news bulletins. The service was widely heard on public radio stations throughout the United States. The Monitor later launched an international broadcast over shortwave radio called the World Service of the Christian Science Monitor. Weekdays were news-led but weekend schedules were exclusively dedicated to religious programming. The shortwave service ceased operations on the 28th of June 1997. In 1986 The Monitor started producing a current affairs television series The Christian Science Monitor Reports distributed via syndication to television stations across the United States. In 1988 The Christian Science Monitor Reports won a Peabody Award for a series of reports on Islamic fundamentalism. That same year the program was cancelled and The Monitor created a daily television program World Monitor anchored by former NBC correspondent John Hart initially shown on the Discovery Channel. In 1991 World Monitor moved to the Monitor Channel a 24-hour news and information channel launched on the 1st of May 1991 with programming from its Boston TV station WQTV. The only religious programming on the channel was a five-minute Christian Science program early each morning. In 1992 after eleven months on the air the service was shut down amid huge financial losses.

• 3. Notable Reporting History

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  In 2006 Jill Carroll a freelance reporter on an assignment for The Monitor was kidnapped in Baghdad. Although Carroll was a freelancer the paper worked tirelessly for her release and hired her as a staff writer shortly after her abduction to ensure that she had financial benefits. She was released safely after 82 days. Beginning in August 2006 the Monitor published an account of Carroll's kidnapping and subsequent release with first-person reporting from Carroll and others involved. During the 27 years while Nelson Mandela was in prison in South Africa after having been convicted of sabotage among other charges The Christian Science Monitor was one of the newspapers he was allowed to read. Five months after his release Mandela visited Boston and stopped by The Monitor offices telling the staff "The Monitor continues to give me hope and confidence for the world's future" and thanking them for their "unwavering coverage of apartheid". Mandela called The Monitor "one of the more important voices covering events in South Africa". In 1997 the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs a publication critical of United States policy in the Middle East praised The Monitor for its objective and informative coverage of Islam and the Middle East.

• 4. Pulitzer Prize Legacy

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  Seven Monitor journalists have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize including Edmund Stevens in 1950 John Hughes in 1968 Howard James in 1968 Robert Cahn in 1969 Richard Strout in 1978 David S. Rohde in 1996 and Clay Bennett in 2002. In 1950 Edmund Stevens won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for his series of 43 articles written over a three-year residence in Moscow entitled This Is Russia Uncensored. R. John Hughes won the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for his thorough reporting of Indonesia's attempted Transition to the New Order in 1965 and the purge that followed in 1965, 66. Howard James received the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his series of articles Crisis in the Courts. Robert Cahn won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his inquiry into the future of the United States' national parks and the methods that may help to preserve them. Richard Strout earned the 1978 Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards Journalism for distinguished commentary from Washington D.C. over many years as staff correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor and as a contributor to The New Republic. David Rohde was awarded the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for his persistent on-site reporting of the slaughter of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in the Srebrenica genocide. Clay Bennett won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning.

• 5. Financial Struggles And Shifts

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  The paper's circulation has ranged widely from a peak of over 223,000 in 1970 to just under 56,000 shortly before the suspension of the daily print edition in 2009. Partially in response to declining circulation and the struggle to earn a profit the church's directors and the manager of the Christian Science Publishing Society were purportedly forced to plan cutbacks and closures which led in 1989 to the mass protest resignations by its chief editor Kay Fanning managing editor David Anable associate editor David Winder and several other newsroom staff. Those developments also presaged administrative moves to scale back the print newspaper in favor of expansions into radio a magazine shortwave broadcasting and television. Expenses however rapidly outpaced revenues contradicting predictions by church directors. On the brink of bankruptcy the board was forced to close the broadcast programs in 1992. In October 2008 citing net losses of US$18.9 million per year versus US$12.5 million in annual revenue The Monitor announced that it would cease printing daily and instead print weekly editions. The last daily print edition was published on the 27th of March 2009. By late 2011 The Monitor was receiving an average of about 22 million hits per month on its website slightly below the Los Angeles Times. In 2017 the Monitor put up a paywall on its content and in 2018 there were approximately 10,000 subscriptions to the Monitor Daily email service.

• 6. Editorial Stance And Influence

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  The Christian Science Monitor is not primarily a religious-themed paper and does not evangelize though each issue of the paper does usually contain a single religious-themed article in the Home Forum section generally related to a topic from the day's news. The paper reports on issues including natural disasters disease and mental health issues homelessness terrorism and death. The paper's editorials have advocated against government interference in an individual's right to choose their own form of healthcare. They also support the separation of church and state and the paper has opposed efforts to teach fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible in science classrooms. During the era of McCarthyism a term first coined by The Monitor citing Christian Science Monitor the 28th of March 1950 p. 20 the paper was one of the earliest critics of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy. Mark Sappenfield became the editor in March 2017. Christa Case Bryant succeeded him in February 2025.