New support for RNS

When newspaper circulation in the U.S. peaked in the 1970s
and '80s, large news outlets could afford to have specialists covering such
fields as science, medicine, legal affairs, environment and religion. At the Los Angeles Times, where I worked for
three decades through 1998, there were always at least two or three of us on
the religion beat.

In recent years the Times has had a slot for only one religion specialist. Many
mid-sized papers have no full-time person covering religion news.

Filling the gap for many news outlets is
Religion News Service, a nonsectarian service based in Washington, D.C. Once
under the aegis of the nonprofit National Conference of Christians and Jews,
RNS was bought by Advance Publications 17 years ago. But the company began
seeking a buyer for RNS in 2009.