Modernization
The print edition continued to struggle for readership, and, in 2004, faced a renewed mandate from the church to turn a profit. Subsequently, the Monitor began relying more on the Internet as an integral part of its business model. The Monitor was one of the first newspapers to put its text online in 1996, and was also one of the first to launch a PDF edition in 2001. It was also an early pioneer of RSS feeds.
In 2005, Richard Bergenheim, a Christian Science practitioner, was named the new editor. Shortly before his death in 2008, Bergenheim was replaced by a veteran Boston Globe editor and former Monitor reporter John Yemma.
In October 2008, citing losses of $US18.9 million per year versus $US12.5 million in annual revenue, the Monitor announced that it would cease printing daily and instead print weekly editions starting in April 2009. The last daily print edition was published on March 27, 2009. The Monitor continues to offer daily news online on its website and via email. Yemma stated that the move to go digital was made because they recognized that CSM's reach would be greater online than in print. He has also stated that in the next five years the CSM would work to increase their online readership fivefold, from 5 million page-views to 25 million.
As the paper has turned its attention to online storytelling, it has been breaking ground with multimedia projects like "Little Bill Clinton", a narrative serial following a year in the life of a young refugee.
The weekly magazine follows on from the Monitor's London edition, also a weekly, launched in 1960 and the weekly World Edition which replaced the London edition in 1974.
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