Church Web Sites: Information Resources for the Public
When Newsroom was first launched in September 2000, it was primarily as a tool to help journalists find accurate information about the Church leading up to the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
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Description
The Newsroom Web site was first launched before the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
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The site received a post-Olympic redesign as general Internet use increased worldwide and more and more journalists turned to the World Wide Web to access information quickly. By year-end 2005 the site needed another change as the Internet shifted from being an encyclopedia-like reference guide to a more dynamic multimedia, more conversational medium.
The changes to Newsroom took a year to complete and were guided by research into Web best practices and analysis of audience needs. They gave the Church a reliable mechanism to provide timely news releases, stories, official statements and editorials, combined with the ability to make Church-produced videos available digitally for the first time.
Although part of the LDS.org domain, Newsroom is a distinctly different site with a different purpose from LDS.org. The LDS.org site is intended primarily for Church members, while Newsroom is a resource for journalists, various researchers, community leaders and the general public. Newsroom tries to avoid undefined terminology familiar only to Church members, and the tone is more conversational. The site also keeps abreast of fast-breaking news stories that might involve the Church.
Newsroom also differs from Mormon.org, a site intended mostly for people personally interested in the Church’s teachings.
The development of these and other specific Church sites with substantial resources is a long way from the one page in 1996 with a message that read: “Information concerning The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will appear on this home page at some time in the future. When the home page is online, members of the Church and others will find official information regarding the Church, its doctrines, organizations and policies.”
It was not until February 2007 that the front page of LDS.org was changed when two main pages with links on the home page: Global media guide and Official Church policy.
In a 1997 interview about the Church and the Internet, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, a senior apostle of the Church, explained that the two-year static page on LDS.org “was done simply to let people know we were aware the Internet was available.”
As Church membership grew and public interest in the Church increased, LDS.org evolved into the official information site about all things Mormon. That site has also had a series of design changes, with the fourth released in January 2007.
Developing the Church’s main Web site for members was a project with no precedents to learn from. “We didn’t find anything that really had the breadth of what we were after,” said Larry Richman, the Church’s director for Internet coordination. “We looked at other Web sites and found good ideas. That’s often what happens on the Internet, as it is still such a brand new thing.”
With design changes came content changes eventually leading to topic-specific Web sites operated by Church headquarters departments responsible for those functions.
As departments in Salt Lake City saw to the day-to-day needs of their own Web sites, Church leadership and employees in countries outside of the United States started to create official Church Web sites in their local languages with information about the Church in their country. Today there are 62 distinct national Web sites, each accessible through LDS.org.
Richman and his team included in the latest redesign of LDS.org the ability to deliver the hundreds of thousands of pages on the site in languages other than English. In 2008, site content in 10 foreign languages will be released, not to replace the country Web sites, but to make even more Church resources available to members worldwide.
A challenge many Internet users face when looking for information about the Church is knowing which sites are official sites and which ones may meet their needs. The following is a brief explanation of the main Church Web sites, the type of information available on each site and who the intended audience is:
- www.newsroom.lds.org — The official resource for the news media, opinion leaders and the public operated by the Public Affairs Department. News stories and editorials are added or updated two or three times a week. Official Church statements on public issues or responses to news reports about the Church are posted and archived. Background reference material on Church beliefs and practices form a substantial part of the site. Topics and biographies of senior Church leaders are accessible. Newsroom also identifies Church spokespersons and explains how to contact them.
- www.lds.org — The Web site for Church members is operated by the Curriculum Department. The content is written for a Church-member audience and includes lesson manuals, lay clergy resources, scriptures, magazines, senior leadership talks, ideas to strengthen families, information on chapel locations and meeting times for members and visitors, local congregation Web pages and links to all other Church sites. The site receives approximately 50 million page views a month.
- www.familysearch.org — The official genealogy site for the Church is operated by the Family and Church History Department. It is undergoing major changes as more and more family history data becomes available online. It is already one of the largest genealogical resources in the world. Family history records include census indexes, vital records and user-submitted pedigree charts that can be accessed by anyone interested in genealogical research. The site is connected to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and provides locations of family history centers of the Church across the globe.
- www.mormon.org — A site dedicated to helping the general public understand the basic beliefs and practices of the Church. It is operated by the Missionary Department. Information is provided in a simple format, avoiding the use of words that may only be familiar to members of the Church. Answers to often-asked questions by new Church converts or those seeking to know more about Church beliefs are available, as well as the ability to chat live with a Church member.
- www.providentliving.org — A site operated by Welfare Services, with information regarding self-reliance, emergency preparedness and humanitarian efforts. Resources range from information on family budgets and food storage to updates on ongoing global initiatives and emergency disaster response. Many of the welfare tools were designed for Church members, but much of the information is useful to the wider public.
Style guide note: When reporting about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, please use the complete name of the Church in the first reference. For more information on the use of the name of the Church, go to our online style guide.
