Four members of the board of the Lithuanian Church Chronicle Foundation have worked together with CAMECO and developed a four-year programme to address the key needs of the Catholic social communication sector. The overall objective of the programme is to enable the Catholic Church to reach out to wider parts of Lithuanian society. During an initial workshop, the key issues were identified and, over the following months, the programme was jointly developed.
A central component of the four-year programme is increasing the self-sustainability of four key partners, in terms of the quality of their media content, the effectiveness of their management and marketing activities, and the appropriateness of their strategic goals.
Audience and market research will provide a basis for reviewing positioning, content and channels used and to identify unmet needs and opportunities for new initiatives and products. Management consulting, especially in the areas of strategy, marketing and organisational effectiveness will enable the partners to define and pursue appropriate objectives for their media outlets. A common distribution and logistics solution for print media is expected to reduce costs, and to boost efficiency in existing markets (mainly Church-related) and access wider markets (mainstream).
More than 75 % of people in Lithuania self-identify as Catholic, but Catholic media are generally seen as niche products for a marginal audience. To improve the situation, the Catholic Bishops Conference entrusted to the Lithuanian Church Chronicle Foundation the task to facilitate collaboration among Catholic media organisations and to provide them with various types of support To accomplish the implementation of the new programme, external experts will be hired temporarily, assisted by board members of the Church Chronicle Foundation, who will also supervise the progress. CAMECO was asked to further support the group during implementation and evaluation of this revitalisation programme.
