By Baptist and Reflector
BRENTWOOD — A new era in the 180-year-old Baptist and Reflector will officially launch Oct. 7.
The newsjournal of the Tennessee Baptist Convention will have a dedicated website — www.baptistandreflector.org.
B&R stories have been posted on the Tennessee Baptist Convention’s website.
The dedicated website opens up new opportunities for the paper, said Editor Lonnie Wilkey.
The print edition will continue to be “our bread and butter,” but the website “will allow us to reach more readers than ever before,” he noted.
The website will replace the virtual edition of the B&R, beginning Oct. 7. Those who currently receive the link to the virtual issue by e-mail will continue to receive a link to the dedicated website.
Wilkey noted the website will allow for more national news from Baptist Press and other sources as well as additional columns and opinion pieces addressing issues of concern for Tennessee Baptists.
“We’ve been able to shape the future of the Baptist and Reflector thanks to our readers who participated in an extensive survey last year,” said Chris Turner, TBC communications director.
“They indicated a desire for both a print and electronic publication that focused on news about Tennessee Baptists and Tennessee Baptist churches. We’ll be able to deliver that and more with our online version along with the print version. What’s also exciting is our readers will have the ability to easily share the online news to social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter,” he added.
“My hope is that readers will recognize that they gave us their opinions and we’ve adjusted what we are doing to better serve them in a variety of ways. We believe through a redesigned print edition and the launch of this online edition, we’ll be able to deliver news that helps inform Tennessee Baptists in ways that strengthen their biblical worldviews.”
Wilkey agreed. “We have been excited with the feedback we have received when we focused on issues such as addiction and how the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage will affect our churches.
He noted the website will be more “user-friendly” for readers. In addition, stories will be archived and can be searched by using key words.
“For those in the future who do research, this will be an invaluable feature to them as they discover how Tennessee Baptists dealt with the critical issues of their day,” Wilkey said.
“Change is not always easy, but it is imperative,” he added.
