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Religion News is
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edithttp://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=75431 http://www.chron.com/channel/houstonbelief/ http://www.beliefnet.com/ http://www.religionwriter.com/ http://www.religiondispatches.org/ http://www.creedible.com/creed/
In the first half of 2009, more than 250 newspaper reporters were laid off. Many of those were religion writers. As a result, many papers have been forced to nix the faith section, or reduce to it to a few announcements and a worship directory. Veteran Religion Reporter Julia Duin said many editors don't realize the importance of the religion beat, which is what's caused the demise of the faith section. They hire people to cover religion who don't understand it or have no interest, and therefore the section fails. However, few newspapers are hiring religion writers these days.
A recent study showed that the majority of newspapers, TV stations and radio stations have no one covering religion regularly, have someone covering it who does not understand religion or have overworked beat reporters writing about faith when it can be squeezed in. Many newspapers have tried to keep the section alive by moving it to the web. The Houston Chronicle is an example. Their religion site is called Believe Out Loud and is sort of like a local Beliefnet.
Belief net was perhaps the leader of online religion news, but others are stepping up and creating hyper local religion news sites. Sites like Religionwriter.com, and Religion Dispatches are examples of how journalism is changing and evolving into online journalism outlets. So is www.creedible.com. Creedible is an online magazine that was launched in August, 2009. The site covers religious news across Connecticut. Like other religion news sites, Creedible is edited by a professional religion writer.
It's likely that more sites like these will pop up in the future as a way to keep religion news alive.