What a fabulous start! Thank you.
Friday, 4th August 2006

What a fabulous start we've had to this venture. From my long years working in communications I've gotten used to slaving away on various projects and when you finally come to launch time with, say, a big page advertisement in the newspaper you find yourself disappointed when the millions fail to turn up at your door. Advertising and promotion is a funny business. Nobody in the world, other than advertising executives, claim they actually read ads and, in one sense, none of us do. How many advertisements do you respond to in the average newspaper that you read? Or how many did you respond to of the one's you saw on television last night?

Based on my experience I estimated a couple of days ago that our ad, which appeared to some 15,000 individuals yesterday via the CathNews email, would be lucky if it elicited about 20 responses. Altogether it was about three times that number based on all the emails related to the ad that I received here. Cliff received a whole lot more.

To work, advertising needs multiple exposures. We tend to respond — get up off our backsides and actually do something — only after we've been exposed to a message about three times. How many of you have been through the experience of trying to ask teenage kids to take the bin out, do the washing up, or clean their rooms – LOL? It's not only teenagers. We are all hopeless when someone is trying to communicate to us.

We're running our second message in CathNews this morning (see copy below) and then we have a lay-off until next Friday – which will, God willing, be filled with exposure in other media. From then on they'll be running twice each week for about a further six weeks. I would like to sincerely thank all of you who did take the trouble to respond to our first advertisement.

And do we have something special for you this morning. Peregrinus simply provides superb "food for thought" on the issue of celibacy which, at some point or other, we all face in our lives. McDrool, on the other hand, I really do hope has you weeping with mirth and laughter in ways in which you have never done in your life before. Enjoy...

Struggling with the issues surrounding celibacy... Celibacy continues to be a hot topic. It raises hackles in discussion forums and seems to be cause for division in the Church. In today's commentary our resident "seeker of moderation and balance", Peregrinus, takes his pen to all the arguments seeking that place of intelligent sense.

Ignatius McDrool is not happy, Jan... For our lighter look at life we have another memo that fell off the back of a truck from Fergus McDrool, editor in chief of Catholic Prudence. Ignatius is not happy, Jan! He did see the advertisement promoting Catholica Australia yesterday on CathNews. You have to read his assessment which he fired off to the other Catholic editors around the country.

Best wishes for a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life, and in our world,

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher
Catholica Australia