The Evangelist bids farewell to editor; successor sought

Kate Blain, editor of The Evangelist for the past seven years, is moving on after a 27-year career at the award-winning diocesan newspaper.

Ms. Blain came to The Evangelist as an intern in 1991 and successively served as a columnist, staff writer, assistant editor, interim editor and managing editor before becoming editor in 2011. A native of Cohoes who holds a degree in English and communications from Mount St. Mary College in Newburgh, N.Y., she was the first woman to be named editor since the paper was founded in 1926.

During Ms. Blain’s seven years as editor, the paper won 55 national journalism awards. One-quarter of those were for Ms. Blain’s individual work, most notably consecutive “editor of the year” awards for the past three years. The Evangelist also increased its web and social media presence and completed a digital preservation process of its archives. Prior to her time as editor, Ms. Blain had won many national awards for news and feature writing and for her weekly children’s Scripture column, “Good News for kids.”

Effective Dec. 6, Mary DeTurris Poust, diocesan director of communications and associate publisher of The Evangelist, will serve as acting editor until a successor is named. Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger has formed a search committee to conduct interviews for the position.

In a statement, Bishop Scharfenberger thanked Ms. Blain for her decades of service and noted that he “remains committed, as always, to our diocesan publication and will continue to work with the staff and board to find ways to make The Evangelist even more compelling and relevant, not only for our devoted print subscribers but for the vast new digital audience that remains largely untapped.”

(For more information on the position, see www.rcda.org/Evangelist-Editor.)