Annual Report 2010

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Front Cover: Sacred Heart Cathedral. Photo courtesy of the Liaoning Diocese

Table of Contents Page: Photograph sourced from UCAN Photo Service (UPS)

Page 5: Photograph sourced from UPS

Page 6 Purpose: Photograph sourced from UPS

Page 6 Vision: Quezon City Philippines. Photo by Dondi Tawatao

Page 6: Photographs sourced from UPS

Page 7: Photo courtesy of the Society of Jesus

Page 7, 8, 9, 10, and 14: Photographs sourced from UPS

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Table of Contents Chairperson’s Foreword ..................... 4

Purpose................................................ 6

Our Vision ............................................ 6

About Us .............................................. 6

Our Focus ........................................ 6

Our Values ........................................ 7

What We Do ........................................ 7

Our People ........................................... 8

Our Training ......................................... 8

Our Context ......................................... 8

Our Communications .......................... 9

Our Clients ......................................... 10

Our Impact ........................................ 10

Our Board ........................................... 11

Our Funding Partners ........................ 11

Our Systems and Processes............... 12

Our Management Team..................... 12

How We Distribute Our Money ......... 12

Where We Get Our Money ............... 13

What’s Ahead .................................... 14

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Chairperson’s Foreword The year, 2010, has been an energetic one for UCA News. We stand indebted to the pioneers Frs.

Bob Astorino and Ron Saucci who created and developed UCA News from a big idea in a small

Hong Kong office in 1979 to what it has become – a unique resource for the Catholic Church in

Asia.

We now have staff and offices across the length and breadth of Asia. Our 55 full time staff and

200 part-time “stringers” produce between 80 and 100 stories a week. We have a graced

opportunity to give voice to the experience of God’s work through the Church across our

populous and varied Continent.

But we also face challenges. How can these challenges be met in an efficient and effective way?

How can we deploy our limited resources to maximum effect? How can we face the huge

opportunity and threat that the transformation of communications represents in our region and

across the world?

This report details how the Board, executives, staff and part-time reporters are meeting these

challenges in a digital, multimedia age.

The Process of Change

The recently Beatified John Henry Cardinal Newman is famous for observing that to live is to

change and that to live long is to change often. Change is as inevitable as it is relentless in its

demands. To meet its challenges, UCA News needs to change administratively, in the skills

developed among staff, and in how it prepares and produces its products.

Change Management has been introduced and controlled through two means. Firstly with

assistance from a benefactor, UCA News has engaged the services of a qualified and experienced

manager to restructure Financial Management, Human Resources (training, contracts and job

descriptions) and ICT Infrastructure. Secondly, through the support of Missio Aachen and the

Italian Bishops, the UCAN Institute has developed beyond its historical roles as a training house

for reporters to one that is training audio and audiovisual reporters and editors.

Highlights of 2010

UCA News has commenced a three year program to re-equip all units in UCA News with adequate

ICT hardware to support their work. We have become a multimedia (voice and vision) news and

information provider. Our web traffic has trebled with our main site (www.ucanews.com) having

leapt 50,000 places in the last four months to rank in the top 230,000 websites for traffic in the

world. There are only three Catholic websites that rate above us.

Things Still to Complete

Nine months ago a decision was taken to enhance the marketing capability for UCAN so that the

organisation could realise its full potential. An operating framework and sound processes have

been introduced and the next phase will be to appoint a full time marketing director to carry this

forward, which is now underway.

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Although we had redesigned the website it still presented challenges for our editors and so

further redesign was required. This is currently underway and should produce results by

February 2011.

The changes to our financial management and processes have come up against some hurdles

with its re-organisation. We continue to work to address this matter and as we approach the end

of 2010 we are able to reflect on the great improvements we have seen.

Chainarong Monthienvichienchai

Chair of UCA News Board

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Purpose

UCAN exists to report and share news and information from, about and

of interest to the Catholic Church in Asia. We currently have operations

in 22 countries and employ 55 personnel, including editors, sub editors,

IT technicians, marketing, administration and general management.

Our Vision We aim to be a trusted and up-to-date observer,

reporter and commentator - informing and

engaging people interested in issues that impact

the Church as well as issues which are impacted

by the Church in Asia. We seek to provide a voice

for the Church in Asia - its struggles, triumphs and

disappointments from the people vitally and

directly involved.

About Us www.ucanews.com is our main website which publishes news and information from, about and

of interest to the Catholic Church in Asia. We have six daily or weekly newsletters in four

languages that include both original and aggregated content. This news is reprinted and used

around Asia and across the world in publications and broadcasts to tell the story of the Church

in Asia.

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Our Focus

To be a News and Information Bureau which is:

� A modern, independent and accurate news service for the Church � An aggregated source of relevant stories published by others for the Church � A publisher of targeted country and language specific newsletters and information

services for the Church

Our Values

� Independent � Objective � Respectful � Humane

What We Do UCA News is a daily newsletter that distributes a summary of the major news and information

from, about and of interest to the Catholic Church in Asia. It is made up of entirely original

material.

CathNews websites are local, country-specific services which publish a summary of the major

news and information from, about and of interest to the Catholic Church in that country. They

are sourced from ucanews.com as well as local UCA News reporting and aggregated resources.

The websites and newsletters are in four languages – English, Chinese, Korean and Bahasa

Indonesia. A Vietnamese translation service is also available through the main website.

UCAN provides a unique opportunity in Asia and in the wider world for

the creation and sharing of news, opinion, analysis and discussion about

what the Church is doing on important issues in Asian locations

� UCAN creates, aggregates and distributes across and beyond Asia information on

the Asian experiences and ideas of Catholics

UCAN provides independent, objective and accurate reporting about issues of interest to

Catholics and the Catholic Church across Asia and around the world

� UCAN enables fast, locally sourced reporting of critical issues from

200 reporters across 22 countries

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Our People UCA News has 55 full-time staff and consultants with up to 200 reporters working on a part-time

basis across 22 countries. We have 12 offices, with some covering several countries or regions.

Our people are our greatest asset. Their skills are in the areas of:

� Reporting: text, audio, audiovisual

� Editing: text, audio, audiovisual

� Administration: finance, legal accountabilities

� Human Resources: induction, training, job description, accountabilities,

performance review

� IT: network and site management, database maintenance

Our Training The UCAN Institute is the multipurpose education resource that supplies:

� Induction

� Reporter training

� Supervision of editing

� Skill development in photography, audio

and audiovisual interviewing, editing,

reporting

� Preparation for writing and editing for the

web

� Basic and advanced English language

training

� Theology and mission in Church communications

� Business management and business development training

Our Context Asia is the growth hub of world economics and home to the two emerging giants – China and

India. But all its changes are not just measured by economic growth indicators.

Technology is having an impact across the board, most

obviously in education, business and communications.

But all those changes have a cumulative impact on

culture and it is the cultures of Asian societies where

the Church and its message witness impact.

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All of this change is especially important for a service such as UCA News. Though the reach is

uneven, all societies in our region, with the

exception of a couple with oppressive

dictatorships, have significant and growing

technology infrastructures. For UCA News, this

means the present and future of our work is on the

internet and ICT.

But the context is varied. In most Asian societies,

the Church is a minority. ICT availability and

internet penetration has the highest and lowest

levels on a world scale.

Each society has its own language, often script and communications protocols which make a

“one size fits all” solution inadequate and, in the long term, irrelevant.

Our Communications www.cathnewschina.com

www.cathnewskorea.com

www.cathnewsphil.com

www.cathnewsindia.com

www.cathnewsindonesia.com

www.cathnewsasia.com

These publications cover locally relevant news:

� Share news of the Church elsewhere which is relevant

or of interest locally

� Enable content to be sensitive to local church

community

� Reflect the life of Catholics living in a particular

country with its unique culture, religion, language,

political or social situation

� Able to publish in local languages:

o Chinese (simple & traditional)

o Korean

o Indonesian

o Vietnamese

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Our Clients Indian Catholic Youth Movement - offers an online

environment for Catholic youth in India. This provides news

services, social networking and mobile applications. The key

objective of this site is to improve the strength, identity and

cohesiveness of Indian Catholic Youth Movement (ICYM) and to

facilitate interaction among members and key stakeholders.

ICYM has a membership of up to 1,000,000.

http://youthactiv8.org/

CRIB is a website and weekly newsletter which creates and

distributes Indian and Asian religious news, features, interviews

and opinions for the 125,000 Catholic Religious of India.

http://www.religiousindia.org/

ESSC - is a Jesuit research institute that promotes environmental sustainability and social justice

through the integration of scientific methodologies and social processes.

http://www.essc.org.ph/

Our Impact In 2009/10, UCA News has for the first time begun to track traffic to our sites and our ranking

relative to other sites on the web – both generally and among Catholic sites.

During 2010, according to the records of Google Analytics, traffic to our sites has trebled – from

50,000 visitors per month and 70,000 page impressions a year ago to a current monthly traffic

of more than 150,000 visitors per month and 240,000 page impressions.

Our premier site www.ucanews.com, has leapt 60,000 other sites from ranking 290,000th to

under 230,000th among sites whose traffic is compared. This rating system compares traffic

among 10 million sites in competition. There are only a few Catholic sites with higher ratings –

Zenit, Catholic News Service (USA) and the Irish Jesuit prayer site, Sacred Space.

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Our Board

Chainarong Monthienvichienchai (Chair) (Thailand)

Fr. Guillaume Arotcarena MEP (France)

Peter Monthienvichienchai (Thailand)

Virginia Saldanha (India)

Wong Wai Fong (China)

Yoshio Oyanagi (Japan)

Fr. Jose Aramburu MM (USA)

Our Funding Partners

PONTIFICIUM OPUS A PROPAGATIONE FIDEI

Città del Vaticano

ERZBISTUM KÖLN

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Our Systems and Processes UCA News operates in 12 jurisdictions and makes transactions in up to 20 currencies. To manage

this, an array of supports has been put in place over the last 15 months.

Incorporation

UCA News has only ever been incorporated in one jurisdiction and registered in another. To

meet with tax, insurance, employment and health and safety regulations where it operates,

UCA News is now legally incorporated in five jurisdictions and is fully compliant with laws in all

places where it operates.

Human Resources

As of 2010, all full-time staff and contractors have job descriptions and contracts. All have Key

Performance Indicators and are assessed annually.

Financial Reporting

In 2010, and for the first time, UCA News accounts are fully managed by an accounts package

(MYOB) and, again for the first time, management have access to monthly reports across our

work.

Our Management Team

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How We Distribute Our Money

Where We Get Our Money

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What’s Ahead Partnerships provide enormous opportunities for UCA News to realise its mission in a world of

convergent media. They occasion three particular areas of partnership:

� With Radio Veritas and other Church media producers in Asia: to develop a

multimedia, multilingual and multi channel web platform. Triggered by a concern of

European funding agencies about the declining relevance of short wave

broadcasting as an audio channel and the fragmented nature of much media

production funded by them in the region, UCA News and Radio Veritas Asia have

signed a Heads of Agreement to create a concept paper describing a potential way

forward. This will be circulated to stakeholders after consultation with them; a

business case to support the desired solution will follow.

� With the Jesuits: UCA News is very proficient at writing and reporting news and

features. We are weak in the areas of comment and analysis of issues and contexts.

This is largely due to the type of writer and reporter we employ. Our base needs to

widen and our News Editor and others are working on it. But we also need the

engagement of other parties that can take us to networks where effective and

opinionated writers and commentators can be found. One place is the Jesuits of

whom there are 6,000 in Asia.

This exploration, and a way to fund the product which emerges from the

exploration, is well underway and will become the main focus of two workshops

that are to occur in the first quarter of 2011.

� In Vietnam: UCA News has a Vietnamese language service which consists of 10 to 12

UCA News stories translated into Vietnamese and posted on our site every week.

This produces excellent traffic to our site with several thousand visitors a month

from Vietnam.

In Ho Chi Minh City, there have been

meetings with the Director of the

Archdiocesan Social Communications

Office. He sought our help in

developing a Vietnamese script site and

newsletter. This will require some

training of local editors in Vietnam and

the development of a site and

newsletters. We will make progress on

this project in the first quarter of 2011.

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Back Cover: Photograph – India courtesy of Michael Coyne

UCA News Bangkok Head Office P.O. Box 40, Ratchatewi Post Office, 10401 THAILAND Telephone: (66) 2954 9311