Yes, this issue looks different. But the magazine’s purpose—keeping the home mission challenge before U.S. Catholics—is still the same.

Over a year ago, publisher Father Jerry Dorn and our Planning-Review Board decided to assess how well Glenmary Challenge was doing. Was it accomplishing its mission? (See the mission statement in the column at left.) And how could the magazine help Glenmary better reach out to new partners in mission, particularly younger Catholics?

With the help of publications consultants John Brady and Greg Paul, we conducted in-depth telephone surveys with randomly selected Glenmary supporters. Then we evaluated our format and content in light of survey results as well as the best data about what promotes magazine readership and editorial effectiveness today.

Glenmary Challenge is competing for attention with so much other media—religious and secular, print and electronic. To be noticed, to be read, it just has to be the best that it can be. That’s the only way to ensure that the home mission challenge, originally sounded by founding editor, Father William Howard Bishop, can still be heard in our information-saturated society.

We are excited about the magazine’s new look. We hope you are too. Please let us know what you think—and what you would like to read about in coming issues: communication@glenmary.org. One of our goals is to encourage more reader feedback.

But our major goal is to bring the home mission challenge to the attention of younger readers. They were very much in mind as we created a more “browsable” format and more obvious connections to Glenmary’s Web site.

If you haven’t yet seen our Web site, I hope this redesign will coax you to check it out.