The twenty-second year of the new millennium has been full of new challenges and commitments for ANS. And it has been so from the very beginning with the launch of a new product of the agency last January: "ANS News Video", the monthly newsletter that reviews, in a TV-news format, the most important events recorded within the Congregation and the Salesian Family.
Then, in April, the news of the recognition by Pope Francis of a miracle that occurred through the intercession of Artemide Zatti opened for the ANS a long path of commitment aimed at making the figure of the saintly nurse from Patagonia more and more known inside and outside the Congregation. It has been a months-long journey, involving dozens and dozens of people and reaching its peak on October 8-9, with live broadcasts and information products related to his canonization. And it was and is a journey that has not yet stopped - as the blessings generated by this extraordinary event still endure and deserve to be told.
In addition to all this, the traditional service that ANS produces and provides through its usual tools continued: the website and its pages on social networks. To cite just a few stats, in the past 12 months, some 1,090 news articles, 1,104 photo-stories and 174 articles in the other categories on the website were published: interviews, in-depth reports, events, "good to know" facts and figures, and photo-stories.
This year, ANS readers have also especially followed us on social networks, with the Facebook audience reaching close to 60,000 followers, while 11,000 people followed us on Twitter. The ANS Facebook page, moreover, during specific events, such as the feast day of Don Bosco, the feast of Mary Help of Christians, and the canonization of Artemide Zatti, had audience peaks, reaching organically about 300,000 users.
ANSChannel's language channels, where ANS News Video editions are published and live streaming is also broadcast, have a total of about 20,000 subscribers and have become a point of reference for many users.
For the new year, and in view of the challenges that it will naturally bring - in terms of technological and communicative innovation and institutional activities - the commitment of the agency and all its collaborators is and remains to continue to serve as a qualified source of information, at the service of the Congregation and the Salesian Family, of readers and of the truth.
