I've been going in hard on the @CatholicHerald recently but all jokes aside I am very worried about them. It comes from a place of love and concern.

Thread:

1) I've noticed recently that the Herald is content starved. Back a couple years ago there would be loads of original content going up every day. You scroll through now and it's barren... And what's there is subpar... (More on that later)

2) no doubt this is because they changed to a monthly rather than weekly model. This will save on printing costs, great, but why not have an online-only bloggy section and commission more articles? Lots of publications do this.

3) the obvious answer to this is money - they can't afford to pay that many good quality writers that often. This also explains why so many of their best writers were mysteriously let go, or why their contributions have become less frequent...

4) churches being closed in lockdown will no doubt have hit them hard financially, as a lot of people bought their Herald after mass on the way out... All those sales will have been wiped out. But that can't be the only reason

5) some of the writers, what few are left, are total nobodies. It's like a bad student paper: as is much of the content. I'm not being glib, it's fishwrap. 2 years ago it was some of the highest quality journalism in the country. What a loss!

6) The Critical Race Theory article the other day was the icing on the cake, which rightfully got ratio'd, but it's been going south for a while. & Why didn't they learn from that? The only response was a follow-up article saying their readers are "unabashedly racist".

7) how ignorant and delusional can you get? It's not racist to be concerned that a once great paper which brags of it's connections to Waugh, Chesterton, Tolkien, et. al. has descended to race-baiting marxist tramline writing. But why self-reflect when you can blame the readers?

8) try listening to your readers more, rather than the arrogant unqualified american grifter, DB, who is somehow unaccountably now the de facto editor... all because she's best friends with Cash.

9) another major problem is having @craltieri at the helm. No offence to Chris, I'm sure he's working hard - but how can you run an English magazine from America? The reason CH USA failed last year was largely the attempt to run an american publication from London. Bad idea.

10) in short it's a crisis of bad management, but not necessarily the fault of all of those in management. Dan Hitchens, for example, is more than capable - but how can he do his job when he's being micro managed by an overblown american consultant...?

11) regarding @holysmoke, I think all agree that DT kept the magazine together. His departure is a large part of why it's ended up in it's current sorry state. But also possibly part of why he left. It was already going south since Brooks & Cash bought in. They need to go.

12) it's a 133 year old publication for crying out loud. It is not the property of this generation to squander. It flourished through adversity for over a century due to the passion and verve of those who loved it - it should not be in the hands of people who can't preserve it.

13) the quality has dropped off a cliff in recent months. It's time to shxt or get off the pot, lads, if you can't run the magazine and keep it filled with the quality of content which it has enjoyed for centuries then you need to sell up to someone who can before you bankrupt it

14) The only other option is for someone to launch a rival to fill the gap in the market which has been left by this recent plunge. No doubt all the ex-columnists will be happy to write for this new competitor, given how nastily they were treated when let go...

14) It's sad to say, but it is like watching a bunch of monkeys throw around a precious vase... Someone needs to intervene or it will be broken. Once it's gone it's gone for good. /thread