Shortly after discerning out of the Convent, she began her career in media, and helped EWTN News expand the ACI Group by participating in the foundation and launching of ACI MENA, the Catholic news agency in Arabic for the Middle East and Northern Africa.
As a part of this reorganization, Warsaw announced that Shannon Mullen, a more than 30-year veteran in journalism and Catholic News Agency’s editor in chief since July 2021, has been selected to serve as editor-in-chief of the Register.
The newspaper, founded by Msgr. Matthew Smith in Denver in 1927, was acquired by EWTN in 2011. In addition to the biweekly print edition, the Register produces daily news at NCRegister.com. The Register earned the Catholic Press Association’s Newspaper of the Year award in 2022.
“Over the last 18 months, Shannon has demonstrated a passion for journalistic excellence, a commitment to serving the Church and a deep dedication to his team at CNA,” said De Melo.
The transition of Mullen to the Register, she added, “plays into his creative strengths and capitalizes on his long experience in the newspaper industry.”
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Before coming to CNA, Mullen was a features writer, investigative reporter and editor with the Asbury Park Press, a Gannett Co. newspaper, in New Jersey, where he was a member of a reporting team that was named a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize.
De Melo, for her part, has been involved in Catholic media for more than 20 years, first as a Diocesan Communications Director and general manager and most recently leading the Register for more than 10 years.
In her expanded role as Executive Director of both the Register and CNA, the focus will be on ensuring the quality of the journalism, faithfulness to reporting from a distinctly Catholic lens as well as attracting new audiences to the newspaper and websites.
“For several years now, the Register has depended on CNA for its Vatican coverage and breaking daily news. Uniting under one umbrella to strategize and share resources will only increase our coverage footprint and our effectiveness in serving our audiences,” De Melo says.
“I look forward to greater collaboration between the CNA and Register teams,” she further says, and adds, “I know through partnership with the ACI Group we’ll be able to expand our work to bring even more news from the universal Church to our domestic readers.”
The search for an editor in chief for CNA is currently underway.
On January 23, EWTN announced the appointment of Maria Montserrat (Montse) Alvarado as the new President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Washington, D.C.-headquartered EWTN News. Alvarado will assume that post on March 6.
ChurchPop, a digital platform that creates content in several languages, is another entity of EWTN News. It also produces numerous television news programs including EWTN News Nightly, EWTN News In Depth, EWTN Pro-Life Weekly, and The World Over, among others.
In its 42nd year, EWTN is the largest Catholic media organization in the world.
EWTN’s 11 global TV channels and numerous regional channels are broadcast in multiple languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week to over 400 million television households in more than 160 countries and territories.
EWTN platforms also include radio services transmitted through SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio, and over 600 domestic and international AM & FM radio affiliates; a worldwide shortwave radio service; one of the most visited Catholic websites in the U.S.; as well as EWTN Publishing, its book publishing division.
Fr. Don Bosco Onyalla is ACI Africa’s founding Editor-in-Chief. He was formed in the Congregation of the Holy Ghost Fathers (Spiritans), and later incardinated in Rumbek Diocese, South Sudan. He has a PhD in Media Studies from Daystar University in Kenya, and a Master’s degree in Organizational Communication from Marist College, New York, USA.
