America Media: A Religious Media Case on the U.S. Market

Abstract

In the whole world, independently of the country, we observe the process of media concentration. More and more huge consortia and media groups are being created. This often causes small, individual, autonomous titles, portals, radio or television stations to be displaced. This process of media evolution also affects religious media. An example of this could be the America Media consortium, with headquarters in New York. It belongs to the Jesuits, the Catholic order, and it is administered and developed by the same order. This descriptive study presents the process of the evolutionary transformation of America weekly magazine, which is over 100-years old, into a multi-dimensional media platform with a global scope. The new and modern media consortium is developing the wonderful history of the printed Catholic magazine. It is present in all the most important media areas: magazine, radio, television and internet. According to global trends, a key factor in America Media is the social media through which they bring a large number of readers, listeners and viewers. Most popular are radio podcasts and TV interviews available via Facebook and the YouTube channel. This evolutionary process is presented in the context of variety of Catholic American media. The specific elements of the mission of the Catholic consortium, the adopted development strategy, possible perspectives of this media complex in the near future, and existing difficulties are also discussed in this paper. The study was largely based on a visit made to America Media headquarters in October 2018.