Nieman Foundation at Harvard
Nancy Vogt at Pew Research has a good overview of some of the strategies college newspapers are using to try to adjust to new financial realities — from paywalls to reduced frequency to selling naming rights and more.
Many of the nation’s estimated 1,600 college newspapers are now experimenting with editorial and business innovations in the face of some of the same economic hardships that have hit the rest of the newspaper industry.
There is little hard data on the student newspaper field compared to that of the widely-studied commercial side, but these publications also struggle with issues ranging from the balance between print and digital to diminishing advertising revenue.
There are varying theories of what a college newspaper is really for. Is it to inform the college community? To be a check on the college administration’s power? To make a profit? To train future journalists?
The answer, of course, is some combination of all of the above — but the balance can vary from place to place.
If training future journalists a key part of their mission, for instance, I truly can’t fathom this statistic Vogt cites: As of 2012, 37 percent of college newspapers surveyed did not have a website.
2012.
2 comments:
37 percent? I’m with you. Cannot fathom.
It’s true. Two caveats: The study had a +/- margin of error of 4.5% (random sampling of 392 of the nearly 1,600 listed in E&P yearbook), and, as Vogt noted, it includes some papers that had a website, but had not posted content in at least six months, and in most cases, years).
Not surprisingly, frequency was a huge factor: 63 percent of those publishing monthly or less didn’t have a website, while the number for twice-monthlies was 51 percent. The numbers at these schools–primarily small schools/community colleges, probably without journalism programs–naturally affected the overall results significantly.
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