Mormons Launch Philippine Newsroom 

A newsroom website was recently created and launched on June 9, 2012 by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) to serve as an official resource to media, opinion leaders and the general public.

Twenty volunteer public affairs writing specialists from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao gathered for three days at the Manila Philippines Administration Office of the Church in Quezon City to be trained by two content management specialists from Salt Lake City, Utah. 

The three-day training in English proficiency and country newsroom site management taught the volunteers how to write and upload articles to the new website. The site will feature local news articles and lifestyle stories of the Church and their more than 600,000 members.  Philippine humanitarian articles will also be found in the site as well as information and topics that relate to the Church.

President Michael John U. Teh, Area President of the Church in the Philippines, commenting on the new site, said, “As an Area Presidency, we are thrilled with the launching of the Church Newsroom in the Philippines.  This will allow us to make pertinent news and events of the Church in the country more readily available to our media practitioners as well as the general public.  It is our desire to be an open and visible partner of the community on matters that deal with strengthening families and individuals.  As people become more aware of the types of things that we do, they will be able to call on us easily for possible partnerships in worthy endeavors. “

One of the writing specialists attending the seminar, added, "With the functioning local newsroom site, it is wonderful to know that we can share with others how we strive to follow the Savior and His teachings. We can also help the members of the Church feel grateful they have been and are a part of humanitarian causes which benefit all people, regardless of their religion or beliefs.”  

In 2010, the Public Affairs site http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/ of the United States was launched to address questions from the media, civic and government leaders and the general public regarding the Church. Since then, Manager of Operations for Public Affairs, Todd Goulding, and a team of solutions specialists headed by David Parra, developed a program for writers to post articles on the newsroom. As they completed that project, putting the site in operation in different countries to feature local stories had been their goal. As of this writing, seventeen local country newsroom sites can be seen on the worldwide web, with the one in the Philippines being the eighteenth. Before this year ends, fifty more country newsroom sites should be up and running, offering their countries local as well as general news about the Church.