Press Service International is a ministry of Well-Being Australia which mentors young people who contribute a 'comment article' once every Cycle of 5 weeks - for publication in Christian Today.
That all sounds a very simple process but in reality there is a ‘host to engage’ to see it all happen - this articles provides a glimpse of this.
There are five parties involved
1 Christian Today the publisher
2 The young writers
3 The coordination and editing process
4 Distribution
5 The Panellists who mark the articles
Christian Today
Christian Today is part of the Christian Media Corporation (CMC) based in Washington DC but with the subsidiary mast heads around the world, such as the highly recognised Christian Today UK based in London.
Christian Today Australia and Christian Today New Zealand are part of this 100 mast head network which includes the US Christian Post, the world's largest Christian news provider.
Each morning Christian Today Australia / Christian Today New Zealand sees the process of uploading the day's articles onto these two sites. Since 2009 Christian Today Australia / New Zealand and Press Service International have developed a young writer ministry whereby these young people have provided 'Comment article' column space – the philosophy is as to give the next generation on Christian leaders their own 'Voice'.
The Young Writers
These young people comes from a broad cross section – education, socio-economic, short term mission experience, Christian service and employment.
They are Australians, New Zealanders, along with a sprinkling from England, Canada, USA, West Indies, Africa, Korea, South Africa, China, Asia and elsewhere.
They came to PSI through recommendations, searches, one to one contacts, personal knowledge and the like. They come from cities, regional and rural communities. They each write a 'comment article' once every 5 weeks which is published in Christian Today that provides them this Voice.
Coordinating process
The young writer program is divided into Cycles of 5 weeks. This 5 week period allows the space and time for every young writer to be published. There are up to 6-7 articles published each day.
Each of the 5 weeks in the Cycle has a coordinator who collates the articles (ie, send out the reminders) and each week has its own editor. It is a smooth running process.
As long as the young writers get their articles in on time there is no problem. The late comers create havoc and if it continues they themselves recognise they have an issue with time management.
Each week is like this
Articles arrive to their coordinator by the Friday evening
Coordinator forwards them to the ‘week editor’
Week editor do their thing and forwards them to PSI
PSI does a final check and then forwards them to Christian Today
It’s obvious that late comers muck-up the system..
Distribution
Each morning the published articles in Christian Today are hyperlinked to the PSI site which then serves as the PR circulation process. Moreover each young writer has their own web presence CV site which also needs to have their articles hyperlinked.
Emails are sent Christian media across Australia and New Zealand and on Friday's additional Emails are sent to the PSI International data bases. Likewise each Thursday to Well-Being Australia support network.
Each young writer whose articles have been published that day are sent a copy of their hyperlink of their article requesting they in turn circulate their link to their own network. It's a fun routine with the Lord. And it functions well.
Panellists
There are separate groups of Panellists who mark each of their respective articles for the annual Basil Sellers Young Writers Awards. One set of panellists mark New Zealand young writer articles, another group the Australians and a third Panellist group the Sport articles, then the Over 31’s ….. many remarkable volunteers.
At the end of each Cycle (5 weeks) the Panellists send in their Points where various statisticians become involved who tally the points for the annual awards. The 2018 awards were presented at the conference in Christchurch on Saturday 1 September and next year, the 2019 conference is in Melbourne.
Young people interested in becoming a young writer with your own international column please contact Press Service International timeout@bushorchestra.com or 0419 917 713
Past Annual Young Writer Conferences
2018 - Christchurch
2017 - Sunshine Coast
2016 - Sydney
2015 - Sydney
2014 - Gold Coast
Also - Wellington for NZ young writers
2013 - Melbourne
Also - Auckland and Christchurch – NZ young writers
2012 - State conferences
2011 - Tweed Heads
2010 - Gold Coast
After each conference a short video is produced and they might be viewed
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children. Dr Tronson writes a daily article for Christian Today Australia (since 2008) and in November 2016 established Christian Today New Zealand.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html