America's Largest Catholic Newspaper
When Matt Schiller was elected president of the Catholic Press Association this month, no one at Catholic New York was surprised. He’s been heavily involved in the workings of the CPA board of directors for almost a decade and has been a key player in putting the association representing Catholic newspapers, magazines and other publications in the United States and Canada on surer footing.
He did not seek the post. Once he was nominated, he accepted the nod as an opportunity to do some good and predictably deflected attention from himself.
“It’s about making others look good, not about making yourself look good. That goes against my nature,” he said last week in his office at Catholic New York where he has served as advertising and business manager since July 2006.
“I’m much more of a behind-the-scenes guy,” he added.
Not surprisingly, he described the referendum as a recognition of Catholic New York’s standing in the world of diocesan newspapers without focusing on his own significant role in making that a reality.
“Catholic New York is well respected, and people look to us for solutions,” he said. “That’s something I’m proud of.”
In chatting with Matt about his CPA work, one could see the parallels with his service at Catholic New York, the largest Catholic newspaper in the country with a circulation of 132,000.
He outlined the Schiller Rules for successful service in a working life he views as more of a vocation than a job.
Highlights include building good relationships and respecting people; taking the time to listen to them and finding out their concerns so they can be addressed; and trying hard not to intentionally slight anyone because those memories linger.
He has served in the Catholic press for about 30 years, including 20 at The Tablet in Brooklyn where he held positions including business manager and associate publisher.
We first met at The Tablet where I got my start as a reporter. I had to smile when he told me his tenure there began the day after he graduated from St. John’s University in 1973. His Tablet “career” actually began years earlier when he hawked the paper after Mass at his boyhood church of Our Lady of the Cenacle in Queens.
He then served as a business manager for 13 years at Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J., before returning to the Catholic press when he came to CNY.
His CPA responsibilities began quickly as he served as secretary and treasurer of the board of the Catholic Advertising Network (CAN), then a wholly owned subsidiary. Ultimately the association decided to disband CAN because the costs to maintain it outweighed the benefits to members.
That was just one of the tough decisions that had to be made so the association could regain sound footing, said Schiller, 63, now finishing his third two-year term as CPA treasurer.
In his early years on the board, much time was spent chipping away at overhead and fixed expenses as well as weighing program costs and benefits to improve the CPA’s long-term financial outlook.
“It was like looking down a tunnel and not seeing a lot of light,” he recalled. “We made some really hard decisions that worked out in the end.”
As Schiller embarks on his two-year term as president that begins at the organization’s annual convention in Buffalo this week, he hopes the CPA will be able to reach out to get more members to participate in its programs and find solutions to problems that may not be unique to their publications.
In an era when many smaller diocesan publications and magazines are carrying on with just a handful of employees, he thinks the CPA and its staff and board members are in a great position to offer assistance.
In sharing advice and solutions, Schiller said he also finds an answer to a question that has loomed over his professional life: “Are we helping people to communicate?”
