Monitoring the News: The Brilliant Launch and Sudden Collapse of the Monitor Channel [Hardcover]

Susan Bridge (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In the late 1980s, new leadership in the Christian Science Church's publishing arm recognized that the readership of their Christian Science Monitor newspaper had peaked and its operating deficits would continue indefinitely. To reach a wider audience more efficiently, they began employing radio and television. Ultimately, this led to the 1991 launch of their 24-hour cable news Monitor Channel. Bridge, a former Monitor employee, has written this history of its development, launch, and 1992 collapse. She concludes that in comparison with CNN in its early years, Monitor's programming, audience, and financial plan were all sufficient. Bridge argues that the channel's failure was due primarily to internal resistance to television as a medium coupled with a campaign of misinformation by the rival Boston Globe. Thoroughly documented, this well-written study is highly recommended for all libraries and essential for all communications collections.?Lawrence Maxted, Gannon Univ. Lib., Erie, PA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Bridge covers the complex intersection of business and journalism in this probing study of the Monitor Channel--the 24-hour news and public affairs operation formed by Boston's First Church of Christ Scientist, publisher of the respected Christian Science Monitor. Bridge was trained as a social scientist; she also cofounded and helped run a small regional cable network during the time the Monitor Channel was operating (late '80s through '92). In assessing the Monitor Channel's work and the causes of its demise, Bridge pursues larger questions: Can a quality news and public information operation make a profit in the current marketplace? If not, to whom can the American people turn for information they need? She starts with a survey of the broadcast news business from 1920 to 1985; then examines the opportunities and challenges facing a declining national newspaper in the '80s; and finally traces the Monitor Channel decision, its implementation, and the obstacles and opposition it faced. A media case study with disturbing implications. Mary Carroll

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: M E Sharpe Inc (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765603152
• ISBN-13: 978-0765603159
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,183,307 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well researched, very informative piece of literature, March 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Monitoring the News: The Brilliant Launch and Sudden Collapse of the Monitor Channel (Hardcover)

Susan Bridge provides information about a relatively "cloaked" period in the Christian Science movement, and although her book wasn't intended to inform church members about the happenings as they related to the church itself, it is an excellent vehicle for doing so.The book is a good read for those individuals interested in the area of media and the news, even though it draws some bleak conclusions for positive changes in the future in the way we receive our news. The recent Walters/Lewinsky interview is a chilling example of the direction we might be headed, but it is a must reading for every Christian Scientist who is interested in what took place in Boston from approximately 1984-1992.I think it is well written, well documented, and very interesting. I also felt she was fair in her writing and kept as impartial perspective about the entire situation as possible under the circumstances. She leaves questions to be answered by each reader. Was it a good direction? Was it overly expensive? Would it have been an additional or even a replacement medium for providing the quality of news Mary Baker Eddy desired when she founded the Christian Science Monitor--a newspaper that has not broken even financially for decades? Were individual personalities responsible for the failure? What other factors came into play in this whole scenario that impacted the concepts and their implementation.It certainly will make you think.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful, revealing, informative, and readable, August 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Monitoring the News: The Brilliant Launch and Sudden Collapse of the Monitor Channel (Hardcover)

Bridge's book sheds real light on a fascinating story that only an insider such as she could tell with such authority and understanding. A most useful case-study of a fallen communication enterprise that seemed doomed from the start. This is a book that every broadcast professional and academic should read. Well-documented and thoroughly compelling.

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars poor documentation, designed to justify $1/2 Billion loss, July 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Monitoring the News: The Brilliant Launch and Sudden Collapse of the Monitor Channel (Hardcover)

A classic case of poor journalism. Initially designed as a ghost written book for the management team that created one of Boston's greatest fiscal disasters. Few objective sources were used, documentation of the "other side" was white washed.

A classic case of the paranoia that encompasses this book is the claim that the Boston Globe sought to destroy this TV project out of fear of competition. The plans for the Monitor Channel and the subsequent efforts were based on the management team's firm assumption that owning the distribution process (transponder et al) was the critical element to sucess (they bought and built shortwave stations-the distribution network for their radio efforts- around the globe, only to sell them at great losses as revenue hopes crashed).

As the internet evolves we all see that owning the distribution method is precisely the wrong strategy; content is the main goal. Meeting the viewers and readers needs is the only priority. This was the fundamental error and the book tends to gloss over this as well as the millions spent of extravegant employment contracts, offices, dinners and travel.

However this books tries to justify the millions of dollars tossed out the door to launch a project that only the highest paid consultants would endorse (those that disagreed were were terminated). A fact never addressed.

All in all academics should be more than skeptical as they take a look at this book. It was designed as a PR piece and takes liberties with facts, facts that distort this avoidable financial debacle.