WORLD Magazine to Expand; Olasky to Oversee

WORLD Magazine Announces Expanded News Coverage, Development of Digital Platforms

Dr. Marvin Olasky to Oversee Expansion of WORLD's News Operations

ASHEVILLE, N.C.-WORLD Magazine's parent organization has announced a multi-year strategy to transform WORLD from a magazine with web-based delivery mechanisms into a comprehensive news organization that will move aggressively into the space vacated by retreating news organizations and onto new digital platforms.

"WORLD's readers have enabled us already to more than double our news-gathering capabilities in the past year or two," said Kevin Martin, CEO of God's World Publications (GWP), WORLD's parent. "But we need to expand both the breadth and the depth of our coverage to fill the news void with reporting from a Biblical worldview. And we need to be able to deliver our reporting and analysis in a lot of different ways, not just in a magazine."

WORLD's Publisher Nick Eicher has been leading the organization's transformation. Under Eicher's direction, WORLD is transitioning to a new content management system that will dramatically streamline the process of disseminating the news. Eicher is also leading the development of WORLD's digital apps.

And since January, Eicher has been producing WORLD's daily radio/audio newscast, "This is News." The spot is carried by radio stations around the country, and is heard in a podcast format by thousands of people every day.

The vastly expanded reach of WORLD's coverage and the new delivery platforms create new journalistic challenges. "We are no longer just producing content for a magazine that comes out every two weeks," Eicher said. "We are producing news on a daily--even on an hourly--basis. As we increase the development and delivery or our reporting, we need to re-think the ways we gather, write, fact-check, and edit the news."

That's where Dr. Marvin Olasky comes in. Under Olasky's leadership as editor-in-chief, WORLD has developed a robust cadre of Christian journalists who have significantly and steadily increased the quality of the content. "When Marvin joined WORLD, it was a good magazine. He helped make it great," Eicher said. "We want him to do that with our expanded offerings as well."

To that end, Olasky has resigned his post as Provost of The King's College and will devote 100 percent of his energies to the transformation of WORLD from a news magazine into a comprehensive news organization. Olasky will leave New York, where he has lived and worked for the past three years, and move to Asheville, North Carolina, GWP's headquarters.

According to Olasky: "New York is the most exciting city in the world, and it will be tough to leave. But journalism is in a state of transition, and that has created a historically unique opportunity for an organization like ours. Seizing this opportunity will require all of my attention. Living in Asheville will allow for better interaction with Kevin, Mindy (Belz, WORLD's Editor), and Joel (Belz, WORLD's Founder), along with the staff of GWP's other divisions."

Dr. Olasky will continue to organize and host the King's "Distinguished Visitors Series" that has generated for WORLD's readers many vital conversations with public figures. Also remaining at King's campus in New York City are the offices of the World Journalism Institute (WJI), GWP's journalism training division, led by Bob Case.

According to Martin, "The relationship between GWP and King's is not ending. It is simply maturing. We hope WJI and the Distinguished Visitors Series are merely first steps of collaboration with King's."


Olasky plans to remain as Provost at King's until January 31, 2011. He already has begun the transition to Asheville.


WORLD magazine is the nation's most widelyread Christian news magazine. WORLD maintains staff writers in Washington, New York, and other key U.S. cities, and has a network of correspondents around the world.