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Student Newspapers Are in Trouble, Right?

September 11, 2008 RSS Feed Print

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The Chronicle of Higher Education says: "Student Newspapers Escape Most Financial Problems of Larger Dailies." But Inside Higher Ed says: "Print Journalism Squeeze Hits Campuses."

So, which one is true? Well, both.

As publications from UC-Berkeley, Syracuse, and now Missouri report pretty bad news, it seems that a large number of papers are doing "just fine."

Advertisers have been fleeing from professional publications for years, but many still recognize student newspapers have a niche audience. They paid $35 million in advertising last year, a 15-percent increase from 2006. The papers, which are often free, typically have steady circulation, and free/cheap labor (students who will slave away just for the journalistic thrill) keep costs down. A number of publications report relative stability and the papers from the University of North Carolina (Daily Tar Heel) and the University of Florida (Independent Florida Alligator) were both cited as doing pretty OK.

Still, although the outlook for student newspapers is far sunnier than that of the print journalism industry as a whole (which saw a 9 percent drop in print advertising revenue), the weakened economy has discouraged advertisers from ponying up cash as a whole. Both Georgia's Red and Black and UCLA's Daily Bruin are experiencing economy-related problems.

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HEYY,HOW DO U FIND A ARTICAL THAT IS SIMULAR TO WISE OLD WOMAN

RISSA of TX 8:03PM October 20, 2009

white is black- about indian politics
-the men which are in the while are completly black from the inside.
world thinks that india is rissing counrty, but they don;t know about the indian polotician. i am sure, when they able to understand the actual condition at here they will surprised.
i am a student and i am an indian. and i want to explore all the internal situation to world.
to give atom to indian is a not correct one. US should think about it.

ashish dwivedi of WA 4:35AM October 02, 2008

Wrong. The two papers cited - the UF Allligator and the Duke Chronicle, are both independent, as is the UC Berkely Daily Californian. So, being independent of the parent U. is not a factor of health. The reason why two of those are doing well (Duke and UF), has to do with the market they serve and the relative close ecosystem the operate within, not the affliation with the parent U. A better mesaure of the health of the student newspaper niche is to talk with those companies that serve the market - 360Youth/Alloy, and Y2M/MTVu, and ancillary service providers, as well as to look at media buys by the large advetisers (Coke, Ford, Credit card providers, etc.). Are ad buys up or down? Are agencies having to budle more for the same column inch count, or charge more. The facts are that the student papers are just as vulnerable to the market as the professionals are. Neither the student papers nor the professionals are doing much to transition to the web economy and very, very few of the student papers actually own their web entities, CMS, or understand how to monetize on line, rather they have left those issues to the tender care of Y2M/MTVu, which is most likley looking to unload the burden of student newspaper CMS management to another company in the next 6 months. Of all print media, small local newspapers and student newspapers have the best chance of transitioning to the web, yet they are doing nothing in that area. Sad day.

Derrick of GA 9:11PM September 13, 2008

Student Newspapers Are in Trouble, Right?

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