Rich Cameron is up late on a Sunday wondering “Will college publications all be digital in 25 years?” I don’t think the question is ‘if,’ so much as ‘when.’ #

Rich does a good job of laying out the hurdles that are facing such a move: advertising and high readership of the print version. #

Advertising – the main money engine for all modern media – will keep most large operations from moving online-only any time soon. At least until advertisers finally figure out ways to reach those highly-coveted 18-24-year-old minds and wallets without resorting to print. That may come sooner than we all think. #

In fact, from what I’ve heard, advertising (or, more correctly, the lack thereof) is a problem with the nation’s only true online-only publication – the Eastern Connecticut Campus Lantern, and there is discussion that it may revert to a print/online combination publication. #

And that’s cool. Whatever pays the bills, right? #

But there are operations that are ripe for an online-only experiment. Rich mentions a couple in his blog post. And he echoes what I’ve said repeatedly in the past: #

As school budgets shrink and print advertising shrinks, the inexpensive printing of paper-based publications is going to rack up the pressure to go online only. #

The readership question is really more important. How do you get students to go to the online site? Well, it certainly isn’t by shoveling the print edition online. Rather, the web site has to add value to attract eyeballs. In some ways, attracting readers to the web site is the ultimate challenge for college newspapers. #

Let’s face it: the main competition for a college newspaper print edition is the lecturer in the 9 a.m. Organic Chemistry class. And the paper has Soduko. The main competition for the online site is Facebook. #

I don’t think we’re going to win the battle with Facebook. But we’d better get on the field. Follow what Rob Curley said and start experimenting. #

#