By Steve Jalsevac
June 6, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On September 10, 1997, John-Henry Westen and I bumbled along as we launched a new pro-life news and information website. We had very little idea of what we were doing and it was rather stressful trying to comprehend all the technical mumbo-jumbo and learning the daily routines.
I was working in the Toronto offices of Canada’s national pro-life organization, Campaign Life Coalition, at the time. CLC President Jim Hughes directed me to start this new website especially for the purpose of displaying on the Internet the results of the organization’s evaluation of candidates for the upcoming federal election.
We were heavily dependent on the willingness of Hugh Ranalli, a computer specialist, to work during his free evenings and weekends to design and implement that first version of what was then called LifeSite.
Every day, for over a year prior to this, John-Henry had been emailing a compilation of news items to a small, informal list of friends and pro-life leaders. We decided to incorporate this service into LifeSite, expand it and post and archive the reports on the website. A look back in the archives reveals the slim fare we published then compared to today’s professional reports by an international team of journalists and researchers.
Well, we soon learned that hardly anyone was coming to the website to read what we were putting enormous effort into. That occurred despite repeated promotion of Lifesite to CLC’s large national mailing list and regular ads in Canada’s pro-life newspaper, The Interim. As it turned out, very few of the people who might be interested in our material had Internet service, if they even had a computer. That now seems like decades ago.
Gradually, over the next several years things dramatically changed. More people acquired computers, more began to access the Internet and the Internet became vastly more user friendly and efficient. LifeSite received a major redesign thanks to expert web designer Tony Casta. A great deal of content was added, especially a much beefed up daily news service.
The news eventually became the most accessed feature of the site. LifeSite also began to cover a wider range of issues and branched out into extensive international reporting for which we received much recognition. LifeSiteNews now has writers located in the US, Mexico, England and of course, Canada.
This all happened naturally, as though we were being led without even having to think about what we were supposed to do next. We had key people at the UN, so we started to do the international reporting – and so on. There was no agenda, no real plan. We just responded to what we saw needed to be addressed at that time.
The name was changed to LifeSiteNews.com and last year LifeSiteNews.com was incorporated in the United States as a 501(c)(3) corporation based in Pittsburgh.
The most recent re-design has been the result of well over a year’s teamwork by webmaster Harvey Armoogan, graphic designer Rob Huston, coordinator and Marketing Manager Troy Scotchburn and John-Henry Westen and myself. Many, many hours were spent on brain-storming, development and tweaking. (which never ends).
That is the long story of LifeSiteNews.com’s history in short form. A book could be written about it if we had the time.
Although LifesiteNews is an international service, read in many countries, our Canadian subscribers’ list has continued to grow and, as you may have noticed, Canadian stories are still often reported. We send most of them to our international email subscribers simply because we have learned over the years that these developments in Canada have a strong tendency to be exported to or copied in other nations. Canada has an influence in the world well beyond that justified by its relatively small population.
Gwen Llandolt, one of the founders of the national women’s organization, REAL Women, has often been quoted by LifeSiteNews. That is because she has a wealth of experience on the life and family issues both in Canada and internationally. But Gwen also depends on LifeSiteNews. She recently wrote:
“In order to obtain a comprehensive picture world wide of the pro-life/family issues, it is essential to read LifeSiteNews each day. This is because LifeSiteNews provides articles that are not available anywhere else and is the best researched website available on pro-life/pro-family issues.”
Gwen Landolt
National Vice President
REAL Women of Canada
Brian Rushfeldt of the Canada Family Action Coalition is also a LifeSiteNews fan. He states:
“LifeSite News is Canada’s leading source of news that matters. It can be trusted and is a great assistance to keep Canadians informed. CFAC uses this daily to keep aware of issues we all must act upon. Thanks LSN.”
LifeSiteNews has friends in the churches who rely on LifeSiteNews and are not shy to say so. One is St. Catherine’s bishop James Wingle.
“Accurate and timely information are essential to all committed to the work of promoting a culture of life. But where can we find reliable sources of such information? Much of the mainstream media simply ignores issues of life, or when they do run stories on life issues, they are frequently coloured by the pervasive influence of the culture of death and violence that has so tragically penetrated our society. LifeSiteNews.com strives to provide its readers with timely and truthful reporting of what is going on in the dramatic struggle to proclaim and promote the inalienable dignity and worth of human life. This initiative is noble and deserves support. May God bless you.
Faithfully in Christ,
+ James Wingle
Bishop of St. Catherines, Ontario
Canadian Member of Parliament Pierre Lemieux is one of many Canadian politicians who regularly read and rely on LifeSiteNews:
“LifesiteNews is a world leader in providing excellent, timely coverage of pro-life and pro-family news. They need funds, however, to continue with their very important work. Please support LifesiteNews and make a donation today.”
Pierre Lemieux
Glengarry-Prescott-Russell
Parliamentary Secretary for Official Languages and Deputy Government Whip
And that last comment by Pierre sums up the purpose of this article.
“make a donation today”
We love this work and we hope that, like the leaders quoted above, you also appreciate the service we strive very hard to provide you – for the good of all and for the eventual restoration of a culture in favour of life, family, faith and freedom.
Mail your financial gift to:
LifeSiteNews.com
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LifeSiteNews.com, Inc.
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Or check out the various ways you can safely and easily donate on line or by other means at https://www.lifesitenews.com/donate/index.html
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Steve Jalsevac
Managing Director
LifeSiteNews.com