For those of you who couldn’t make it to Sunday’s #collegejourn chat, this is how it went down (or read the full transcript): #

Hour one: College newspapers face weak ad revenue. Solutions? #

USA Today wrote an article about the “all-too-real-world-lesson” that college newspaper revenue decline is finally catching up with the professional world (although, it should be noted, Bryan Murley wrote a thorough post about this very topic long before USA Today). #

Since the start of the current school year, daily newspapers at schools including Syracuse University, New York University, the University of California-Berkeley, Ball State and Boston University have cut one edition a week — usually Friday’s — because of weak advertising. #

Questions posed to the chat: How is your school doing? How do we adjust? #

Anthony Pesce of the Daily Bruin said: We’ve had drastic decreases in our travel budgets, staff stipend budget, equipment budget, etc over the past few years #

Will Sommer: My paper isn’t independent, and we never had much of a budget to start with, so we’re a lot better off than independent papers. That said, our ads are really down–so much so that our printer’s broken and we can’t afford a replacement #

Hour one subtopic: iPhones #

The advantage college publications have over the professional market is that students still pick up a paper out of convenience. But iPhones are changing that. Quickly. #

The logical next step for newspapers (both college and professional) is to make money off effective iPhone applications. They key to a successful iPhone app is that it won’t merely repurpose web content using RSS feeds, but provide extra value. #

Anthony Pesce said his staff is working on an iPhone app that would include location-specific content, classifieds, and other content like professor reviews, although it’s still a way into the future. #

Hour two: Why the Oregon Daily Emerald went on strike #

The news staff of University of Oregon’s student newspaper went on strike March 4 after alum Steven A. Smith was hired to draft a strategic plan for the publication — including creation of a supervisory “publisher” position, which the staff believed would pressure editors into waiving control of the paper. #

Questions posed to the chat: What would you do in the same situation? What can we learn from the strike? #

Daniel Bachhuber wrote a post in response to the strike and — unlike the dozens of other newspapers who signed a letter in favor of the Emerald’s editorial independence — he said the staff’s actions were unwarranted and hindered the paper’s ability to reinvent itself. #

Other thoughts about the strike: #

• Strikes are irrelevant and unnecessary with the ease of publishing thanks to the Internet.
• Strikes are counter productive; students don’t need to do a “strike” anymore, but route around the “official” outlet (i.e. start a blog that administrators can’t control)
• It’s hard to judge the situation without knowing the personality conflicts going on behind the scenes

The chat takes place among educators, professionals and students every Sunday 5-8 p.m. PST at collegejourn.com. If you have topic ideas for next week, direct message Suzanne Yada at twitter.com/suzanneyada. #

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