Deseret News Plans Online Site

They just posted plans to upgrade the LDS Newsline site. Sounds like it will be something like an LDS version of Beliefnet (but more newsy) or a mainstream media version of Meridian Magazine (but, uh, more newsy). The post includes an editor's name with a request for feedback, so feel free to offer your suggestions there. Or maybe he'll read the comments here.

Comments

[Michael]

Meridian Magazine? Please!! That website is so politicized and has bought into the religious right political agenda, it has ceased to be relavant to LDS families. They might as well hand it over to Dobson himself. Take a notice next time you visit how much they try to profit off the Gospel with the items for sale.

[Joseph Walker]

I'm the above-named editor for the new LDS Newsline site on the Deseret Morning News web site (desnews.com). Thanks, Dave, for mentioning us! If you click on the LDS Newsline link today you will find it is mostly a compilation of LDS-oriented articles from the daily Deseret News. We're in the process of trying to turn it into something much more than that. As you indicated, we are trying for something newsy. But we are also trying for the kind of broad LDS-oriented information that many of us have been looking for for years. We're still formulating our plans and would love to have input from anyone out there. So please feel free to send your thoughts to me at [email protected]. I can't guarantee we'll do everything you suggest, but we'll certainly try to make it as relevant and entertaining as we possibly can. And I promise: none of those annoying "Mormon Underwear" ads!

[Dave]

Thanks for the comment, Joseph. I think there is a real online gap to be filled by the site, and I expect it will be a big hit.

[Phouchg]

Meridian is a joke. I'm a conservative guy, but even I think they are wingnuts. They make Cleon Skousen look like a liberal. They have this crank named John Pratt who has written such articles with the eyebrow-raising title of "Uranus testifies of Christ". Whaaaa???

The scary thing is that I know of at least a few people who are convinced that Meridian is an official church publication and therefore has quasi-canonical status.

[Dave]

Phouchg, all of which suggests an expanded DN site could speak with a different voice to the wide selection of news and commentary stories that pop up each day.

[Clark Goble]

I don't read Meridian that often, although when I did I don't recall it being that bad. Beyond John Pratt of course who really does embarrass the magazine and should have been dropped years ago.

[Ann]

Meridian used to be one of the favorite sites in the DAMU for finding stupid Mormon stories. I started threatening people to tell us when they were linking there, so I wouldn't go there by accident. Now that I don't hang out so much in the DAMU, I don't know if they're still using it or not.

[capt jack]

Ann:

I don't visit Meridian anymore. It was just too easy, plus John Pratt was rapidly eroding my faith in higher education in the US.

Plus, I still hold a grudge; I'd vowed to drop out of the DAMU but was instead sucked back in by his "Uranus testifies of Christ" article.

To be fair, not all of their stuff was garbage. I have to recognize a series of articles they did about depression where they took great pains to emphasize that depression was not due to sin and could not be cured by prayer and faith alone.