• CNNMoney, Thursday, January 12, 2006 12:01 PM

Paul La Monica, a senior writer for CNNMoney.com, has looked around the mediascape and arrived at the following conclusion: "I think 2006 is going to be the year when major media firms try to tap into a growing trend: increased interest in religious-themed content." There's ample evidence that he's right. For starters, you've got "The Book of Daniel," "The Chronicles of Narnia," and "The Da Vinci Code"--content that you'd be hard-pressed to have produced for general audiences just a few years ago. Some of this may be a reaction to the enormous box-office success of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ." In any event, the trend seems genuine. La Monica lists a number of media companies that specialize in faith-based content. When it comes to major media companies, though, he acknowledges their natural reluctance to get too deep into religion; they need "to be careful not to alienate their audience."

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