An uncertain future for student newspapers and their journalists

Posted by Helena Deards on May 19, 2009 at 3:17 PM

It would seem that student newspapers in the UK are beset by the same problems as their mainstream counterparts - perhaps even more so. According to a survey by the Leeds Student newspaper, over 45% of UK student newspapers have had to cut their print run or cancel issues, 60% haven't hit their advertising target for the year, and over 25% of their editors "have serious concerns about their financial future."

A similar situation from a different perspective on the other side of the Atlantic: a Bloomberg report claims that the outgoing writers and editors of student publication the Harvard Crimson rarely end up at newspapers. Moreover, those current employees with journalistic ambitions "avoid mentioning it in front of classmates, wanting to avoid expressions of concern, if not ridicule" according to Abigail Phillip, 20, a junior editor at the Crimson.

Speaking to Leeds Student, its former editor and current Observer restaurant critic Jay Rayner was keen to emphasise the value of student publications, and point out the very real impact that their demise would have. "It is no accident that the upper echelons of British journalism are filled by people who got their start on Leeds Student, and papers like it. British journalism would be much the poorer if that source of quality recruits were to be restricted in any way," he said.

However, as demonstrated by the Harvard Crimson, there are an increasingly limited number of journalism vacancies for graduates to fill. "Of the Crimson's last 10 managing editors, only two are working at newspapers," the Bloomberg report reveals, "Javier Hernandez, class of 2008, at the New York Times, and Rosalind Helderman, 2001, at the Washington Post."

Student newspapers provide valuable practical lessons for budding journalists, as well as giving the student body as a whole a voice. Yet their reported struggles combined with the diminishing number of journalistic vacancies do not bode well for their future. Given their readership demographic, student newspapers may have more success than most in an online-only role. However, this solves neither the problem of falling advertising revenue, nor of graduate employment potential - nor of the potential future deficit of talented young journalists.

Source: Leeds Student via Guardian, Bloomberg via PaidContent