Student newspapers ride out the media crisis

Posted by Helena Deards on February 13, 2009 at 4:38 PM

Newspapers globally have been making cutbacks in recent months - except, it would appear, student publications in the US. Most have managed to avoid large-scale cutbacks due to the fact that the majority of students pick up a copy of their weekly campus newspaper, nearly 80% according according to research by Alloy Media + Marketing which is the largest national advertiser in college newspapers.

Alloy also reports that advertising investment in student publications grew by 15%, despite falling by 9% nationally. College papers are undeniably helped by their tendency to attract student writers willing to work for little or no pay, and by their niche status. Logan Aimone, president of the National Scholastic Press Association explains on the Massachusetts Daily Collegian "Particularly at smaller schools, and maybe where it's a residential campus, the campus newspaper is going to be much more valuable."

Some college newspapers have met with occasional financial difficulty - the Independent Florida Alligator has cut back a few full-time staff positions and trips to conferences in recent years to save money despite finances being sound. However, for the most part they aren't meeting with the crisis surrounding the rest of the print industry. Undoubtedly having typically low staff overheads, a more or less guaranteed readership and no real necessity to make a huge profit helps a little.

Source: The Daily Collegian