Bergenheim named new editor of Monitor

Turning to the Monitor's finances, Bergenheim said, "The Monitor cannot go it alone. The paper needs its readers, subscribers, and advertisers, and it needs their efforts to expand its universe of readers, subscribers, and advertisers" to improve the paper's financial health.

The Trustees of The Christian Science Publishing Society have announced a goal of eliminating the society's need for a subsidy from the church's general fund by 2008.

In the Monitor's new budget year, which began May 1, there will be a reallocation of funds between editorial and publishing. There will be a reduction in editorial staff to permit the publisher to devote efforts to marketing to rebuild the paper's circulation. The staff reductions will be between 10 to 15 editorial positions. The Monitor currently has an editorial staff of 102 and a publishing staff of 26.

"The Monitor is blessed by a staff that feels its mission deep in their hearts," Bergenheim said. "Our debt to them is enormous." Bergenheim pledged to handle staff reductions in as fair and compassionate a manner as possible. The staff changes are expected to be finished by July 1.

Paul Bermel, manager of The Christian Science Publishing Society, says this will enable the Monitor to augment its operations in the coming year by the addition of a new head of advertising sales and a new director of business development, among other positions, to strengthen its financial base. This new effort will be led by Jonathan D. Wells, who was named managing publisher of the Monitor, effective immediately. Wells, who had served as director of business development and electronic publishing for the Monitor, replaces Stephen T. Gray, who served as managing publisher since 1997.

"We are grateful to Steve Gray for his accomplishments and contribution to the Monitor, Mr. Bermel said. "Steve worked tirelessly to build the Monitor's visibility and stature. During his tenure there was tremendous growth in website traffic, syndication distribution, and appearances by Monitor reporters on major broadcast outlets," Bermel added.

Bermel said that he hoped that further reductions in the paper's operating deficit could be achieved through increased revenue.

Bergenheim grew up in a Monitor family. He is the son of former Monitor reporter Robert Bergenheim who covered Boston's City Hall for the paper in the 1950s. The elder Bergenheim won a prestigious Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University and went on to become manager of The Christian Science Publishing Society. Later he was publisher of the Boston Herald and started the Boston Business Journal.

The Monitor's new editor has been a Christian Science practitioner since 1974 and has taught classes on the religion since 1982. Most recent Monitor editors have been drawn from the ranks of the newspaper's staff. However, DeWitt John, the Monitor's editor from 1964 to 1970, was a Christian Science teacher who had previously held top administrative posts at the church. During Mr. John's term as editor, the Monitor won Pulitzer Prizes in 1967, 1968, and 1969.

Bergenheim is a 1970 graduate of Principia College in Elsah, Ill., and has a master's degree from the Shakespeare Institute at England's University of Birmingham. He worked briefly for the Monitor during the late 1960s. Since leaving the church board in 1994, Bergenheim has been living in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Ottsville, Pa.

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