中文Catholic Life, a quarterly magazine that returned to print last year after a five-year hiatus, has been recognised with two honours at the 2026 Australasian Catholic Press Association (ACPA) Awards. The result is a quiet but telling endorsement of a title that refused to stay dead, and of the enduring appeal of well-made print in a screen-saturated media landscape.
The magazine had been running since the end of the Second World War before it ceased printing in 2020. Last year it came back to life, and it is now published every three months. Each issue runs 56 pages, perfect bound, printed in CMYK throughout with a 250gsm gloss cover, while the body stock is 120gsm supreme uncoated FSC mix. It is designed for the Diocese of Lismore and produced by Byron Bay-based marketing agency Barefruit Marketing, which is nonetheless coy about who actually prints it.
At the ACPA awards the title was named Most Improved Publication (Print), with judges calling it a “standout winner” and praising a complete overhaul of design, storytelling and photography. It also took runner-up for Best Layout and Design (Print), with judges commending its modern design and effective use of white space, describing the publication as “genuinely full of life, fresh, engaging, and a joy to read.”
Claire Harding, co-founder of Barefruit Marketing, said the team was genuinely proud of the result. “Watching a masthead come back from a five-year hiatus being called a ‘standout winner’ by Australasian judges doesn’t happen without a client who trusts you, and a team that takes great pride in their work,” she said. Editor Barry de Silva thanked the writers, contributors, photographers and Barefruit for making Catholic Life what it is today.
The story matters beyond the religious-press niche. Print titles of every kind have been declared obsolete for two decades, yet Catholic Life’s revival shows that a clearly defined audience, a strong editorial purpose and craft-level production can still win attention and awards. The magazine’s success rests on a specific community rather than a mass market, and on the tangible qualities of paper, binding and photography that a feed scroll cannot replicate.
It also illustrates a wider pattern in regional and specialist publishing: the survivors are often those with a patron, a diocese, a membership body or a cause that values a physical artefact. Where commercial advertising alone once supported titles, today’s resilient print products tend to be backed by an institution that sees the publication as part of its identity rather than merely a revenue line.
For Barefruit, a full-service agency established in 2012 with offices in Byron Bay and the Gold Coast, the project demonstrates how design and production expertise can resurrect a dormant masthead. The agency works across strategy, brand, design, digital and print for clients throughout the Northern Rivers, Gold Coast and beyond, and Catholic Life is a showcase for the print side of that practice.
The awards are a reminder that “improvement” and “design” are not soft metrics. They are what turn a revived title from a nostalgic gesture into a credible, read-and-keep publication. Catholic Life’s judges clearly saw both, and the magazine’s second act is now officially a winner.
In an era when many titles measure success in clicks, Catholic Life’s awards are a useful counterpoint: print quality, editorial purpose and community still command judges’ respect, and a revived masthead can outperform titles that never went away. The resurrection also shows that “print is dead” has always been a crude generalisation. What died for many outlets was the advertising-supported mass model; what survives and wins awards is print tied to a community that values a physical artefact. Catholic Life’s 56-page perfect-bound format, FSC-mixed stock and careful design are not nostalgia but a deliberate product decision aimed at readers who want something to keep. Barefruit’s role underscores another truth: the craft skills of layout, photography and print production remain commercially valuable and award-worthy in their own right. For a regional agency, the project is a portfolio piece that demonstrates how design and production expertise can bring a dormant brand back to life. The ACPA result suggests the judges saw exactly that, and it is a small but real vindication of investment in print craft. More broadly, the story is a template other niche and institutional publishers can study: define the audience precisely, invest in production values, and let a clear editorial mission carry the title through whatever the advertising market does, because a community will pay for and prize a publication that speaks to its identity.
What makes the revival noteworthy is that it was driven by a diocese and a creative agency, not by advertising revenue, which is the model most likely to survive the next downturn. A publication with a clear patron and a clear mission can outlast the cyclical fortunes of the commercial press, and Catholic Life is proof that print craft still earns recognition.
