Considering that the religion beat seems to be suffering with the rest of the media industry, it's always nice to see a paper take steps to improve its religion coverage and marketing of same. I'm an avid reader of religion reporter Peter Smith of the Louisville Courier-Journal, as well as his Faith and Works blog. But sometimes the paper's religion stories are hard to find or browse. Until now.

The paper has launched a new religion page. There, all the paper's stories on faith, ethics, religion and faith-based institutions will be posted. Recent examples include:

An elaborate scam targeting United Methodist pastors, a review of a Christmas play put on by a Baptist church, and a look at the Vatican's new bioethics paper.

You can also find links to religion stories from around the country, multi-media sidebars to stories, links to the Faith and Works blog posts and local information on houses of worship.

It's a great looking page with tons of features. If you have any recommendations for what else should be included, go ahead and let Smith know. One beef I've already heard is that the page is difficult to find from the front page.