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Waypoint
Magazine: What Really Happened by Al Dizon |
| Introduction: Waypoint was a local
Catholic monthly magazine which lasted 10 issues from
July 2001 to April 2002. This article—the untold
story of the periodical’s demise—was put
together through e-mail and verbal correspondence. I INTENDED WAYPOINT TO BE A CATHOLIC MEDIA APOSTOLATE, to provide an alternative to existing local Catholic periodicals, such as The Catholic News, Catholic Asian News and The Herald (a Malaysian Catholic newspaper). I wanted to educate Singaporean Catholics as to the types of media available to them. I wanted to help them go beyond the devotional stuff that they are so engrossed with, and spend some time to read about world or local events with a Catholic perspective. Older Catholics already have a host of devotional and spiritual literature. I wanted Waypoint to be different from those publications; it would be richer with current affairs. I also wanted to show how an empowered laity could make a difference in the social communication needs of the local church. The market is vast. I estimated that there were 300,000 Roman Catholics in Singapore, almost half of which were foreigners. Out of this population, I estimated that The Catholic News reached out to about 15,000 to 20,000 of them only. When I started Waypoint, I needed a vehicle with which to register the publication with the government. So I used Newscraft International, a small partnership I established with my wife in 1994 to look after my freelance journalist and consulting work. Waypoint was my full-time job. It also had one part-time worker, seven volunteer marketers and about eight editorial helpers. We also needed to pay money to our printers, designers and production coordinators, advertising sales agents, as well as spend money on mailing the subscription copies. |
One man’s dream: Al Dizon, publisher and editor of Waypoint.
July 2001 was the inaugural issue of Waypoint Magazine.
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