Since its founding, the newspaper has been based inBoston. Over its existence, sevenMonitor journalists have been awarded thePulitzer Prize, including Edmund Stevens (1950),John Hughes (1968), Howard James (1968), Robert Cahn (1969),Richard Strout (1978),David S. Rohde (1996), andClay Bennett (2002).[4]
TheMonitor was founded in 1908 in part as a response byMary Baker Eddy to the journalism of her day, which relentlessly covered the sensations and scandals surrounding her new religion with varying accuracy[original research?]. In addition,Joseph Pulitzer'sNew York World was consistently critical of Eddy, and this, along with a derogatory article inMcClure's, furthered Eddy's decision to found her own media outlet.[5][failed verification] Eddy also required the inclusion of "Christian Science" in the paper's name, over initial opposition by some of her advisors who thought the religious reference might repel a secular audience.[5][failed verification]
Eddy also saw a vital need to counteract the fear often spread by media reporting:
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; for through our paper, at the price at which we shall issue it, we shall be able to reach many homes with healing, purifying thought.[6]
Eddy declared thatThe Monitor's mission should be "to spread undivided the Science that operates unspent" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 353:16).[5][failed verification]
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 onpublic radio stations throughout the United States.The Monitor later launched an international broadcast overshortwave radio, called the World Service of theChristian Science Monitor. Weekdays were news-led, but weekend schedules were exclusively dedicated to religious programming. The shortwave service ceased operations on June 28, 1997.[7]
In 1986,The Monitor started producing a current affairs television seriesThe Christian Science Monitor Reports, which was distributed via syndication to television stations across the United States. In 1988,The Christian Science Monitor Reports won aPeabody Award[8] for a series of reports on Islamic fundamentalism. That same year, the program was cancelled, andThe Monitor created a daily television programWorld Monitor, anchored by former NBC correspondentJohn Hart, which was initially shown on theDiscovery Channel. In 1991,World Monitor moved to theMonitor Channel, a 24-hour news and information channel[7] launched on May 1, 1991, with programming from its Boston TV stationWQTV.[9] The only religious programming on the channel was a five-minute Christian Science program early each morning.[10] In 1992, after eleven months on the air, the service was shut down amid huge financial losses.[11] Programming from the Monitor Channel was also carried nationally via theWWOR EMI Service, a nationally oriented feed ofWWOR-TV, aNew Jersey–based television station launched in 1990 to comply with thesyndication exclusivity laws put into place the year prior.
The print edition continued to struggle for readership, and, in 2004, faced a renewed mandate from the church to earn a profit. Subsequently,The Monitor began relying more on the Internet as part of its business model.The Monitor was one of the first newspapers to put its text online in 1996 and also one of the first to launch aPDF edition in 2001. It was also an early pioneer ofRSS feeds.[12]
In 2006,Jill Carroll, a freelance reporter on an assignment forThe Monitor, was kidnapped inBaghdad. 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.[14] She was released safely after 82 days. Beginning in August 2006, theMonitor published an account[15] of Carroll's kidnapping and subsequent release, with first-person reporting from Carroll and others involved.
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.[16][17] The last daily print edition was published on March 27, 2009.[18]
The weekly magazine follows on fromThe Monitor's London edition, also a weekly, which launched in 1960, and the weekly World Edition, which replaced the London edition in 1974.[19] Mark Sappenfield became the editor in March 2017.[20]Christa Case Bryant succeeded him in February 2025.[21]
David S. Rohde, one of sevenChristian Science Monitor editors and journalists to be awarded aPulitzer Prize since the newspaper's founding[4]
The Christian Science Monitor is not primarily a religious-themed paper and does not evangelize,[22][verification needed][additional citation(s) needed] though each issue of the paper does usually contain a single religious themed article in theHome Forum section, generally related to a topic from the day's news.[23] The paper reports on issues including natural disasters,[24] disease and mental health issues,[25] homelessness,[26] terrorism,[27] and death.[28] The paper's editorials have advocated against government interference in an individual's right to choose their own form of healthcare.[29] They also support theseparation of church and state, and the paper has opposed efforts to teach fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible in science classrooms.[30]
In 1997, theWashington Report on Middle East Affairs, a publication critical of United States policy in the Middle East, praisedThe Monitor for its objective and informative coverage of Islam and the Middle East.[31]
During the 27 years whileNelson Mandela was in prison inSouth Africa after having been convicted of sabotage, among other charges,The Christian Science Monitor was one of the newspapers he was allowed to read.[32] Five months after his release, Mandela visitedBoston and stopped byThe Monitor offices, telling the staff "TheMonitor continues to give me hope and confidence for the world's future"[33] and thanking them for their "unwavering coverage of apartheid".[32] Mandela calledThe Monitor "one of the more important voices covering events in South Africa".[34]
During the era ofMcCarthyism, a term first coined byThe Monitor,[35] the paper was one of the earliest critics of U.S. SenatorJoseph McCarthy.[36]
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.[37] Partially in response to declining circulation and the struggle to earn a profit, the church's directors and the manager of theChristian Science Publishing Society were purportedly forced to plan cutbacks and closures (later denied), which led in 1989 to the mass protest resignations by its chief editorKay Fanning (anASNE president and former editor of theAnchorage Daily News), 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.[7]: 150 On the brink of bankruptcy, the board was forced to close the broadcast programs in 1992.[7]: 163–166
By late 2011,The Monitor was receiving an average of about 22 million hits per month on its website, slightly below theLos Angeles Times.[38] In 2017, theMonitor put up a paywall on its content, and in 2018, there were approximately 10,000 subscriptions to theMonitor Daily email service.[39] As of September 2023[update], the number of hits had fallen to 1 million per month.[40]
^Jill Carroll (August 14, 2006)."Hostage: The Jill Carroll Story".The Christian Science Monitor.Archived from the original on March 14, 2009. RetrievedJanuary 30, 2013.
Strout, Lawrence N. (1999).Covering McCarthyism: how the 'Christian Science Monitor' handled Joseph R. McCarthy, 1950-1954. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
