New editor of L'Osservatore Romano taking it online & expanding offerings

CNA reports on what the new director of the Vatican's newspaper has in the works:

The recent naming of Catholic intellectual Giovanni Maria Vian as the new director of L’Osservatore Romano, means the opening of a new era for the Vatican publication, which will include its complete publication online.

... The Vatican daily, which is currently published daily in Italian, has a limited circulation of around 3,000, with only about 1,000 actually sold. The actual impact of the paper is much larger though because it reflects the position of the Vatican on critical issues.

Although the Vatican daily will never be profitable, as it rarely prints ads, Vian has proposed not only creating greater interest in the newspaper but also expanding its readership.

The day after becoming director, Vian instituted a significant change in the format and content of the newspaper: pages two and three, usually full of Italian news, have become international pages, with Italy covered as just another country.

More importantly, the new director has begun providing space for extensive opinion articles by renowned experts addressing such sensitive subjects as the future of the liturgy, the dialogue between faith and culture and the reform of the curia.

One such article by Valentin Miserach Grau, current president of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, criticized the state of liturgical music at the Vatican.

Vian has also allowed international analysts of L’Osservatore Romano to sign their own articles, a decision that has pleased the paper’s editors and motivated them to work harder.

According to Vatican sources, the refurbished newspaper has the support of Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

In addition, while editors prepare to publish the complete newspaper online, Vian has begun sending articles out via email to subscribers and to the editors of the principal Italian news agencies in Rome.

Although there are currently no plans to make changes to the weekly editions in other languages, sources at L’Osservatore Romano are looking into the possibility of translating these opinion columns into English and Spanish. The idea of publishing some of the articles online that are not normally featured in the weekly editions has also been floated.

Giovanni Maria Vian took over the position of director at the end of last month. Zenit has some brief coverage, CathNews reported, Pope Benedict wrote him, and Vatican Radio has some sound bites.

A little more on L'OR from wikipedia (seemed accurate enough to me):

It covers all the Pope's public activities, publishes editorials by important churchmen, and prints official documents after being released. Its motto is unicuique suum ("to each his own") and non praevalebunt (the enemies of God, of the Church "shall not prevail"), which is printed under the masthead.

It is published in different languages (sorted by year of the first issue in particular language):

Daily in Italian (1861)
Weekly in French (1949)
Weekly in Italian (1950)
Weekly in English (1968)
Weekly in Spanish (1969)
Weekly in Portuguese (1970)
Weekly in German (1971)
Monthly in Polish (1980)
Weekly in Malayalam (2007)

The daily Italian edition of L'Osservatore Romano is published in the afternoon, with a cover date of the following day. This often causes misunderstandings. Currently it is distributed in more than 129 countries.

I'd certainly like to see L'OR carve-out a greater niche for itself.