The Journal Times in Racine County, Wisc. reports that financial hardships at one local college newspaper forced its staff to think Web-first in a very big way.
The Ranger News, the weekly student newspaper for the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, has folded its print operation and now runs exclusively online.
The News’ editor in chief, Jo Kirst, said growing financial pressures — the paper spent $22,000 a year to print 30 issues — led the paper to cease printing.
Even in an era of mounting difficulties for newspapers, few collegiate papers have gone the route of The News and moved exclusively online.
From the Journal Times:
“It just got to be too expensive,” Kirst said.
The Ranger News‘ decision isn’t typical among college papers, Logan Aimone, executive director of the Associated Collegiate Press in Minneapolis.
…
“I’ve only heard of maybe two or three campuses that have done that, and in every case it’s because of budget,” Aimone said.
Kirst told the Journal Timesthat she misses “being covered in ink” and “smelling like newspaper.” Now the task for the paper is to re-direct its readers to its new Web site The Ranger News.com.
Though Kirst and her staff had an unenviable decision to make, freed money and time resources could allow the paper to reinvent itself in a big way, perhaps setting an example for other college papers who follow suit.
“Hopefully by the end of the semester we’ll be completely marketed on campus,” she said.
So what do you think about the The Ranger News’ online transformation? And how can it successfully market itself to move its readers online?
Seattle University’s Spectator reported about a week ago that the service, which is free for college newspapers, temporarily suspended its print operations. It’s Web site, which is currently down, stopped updating headlines and sending out daily news e-mails earlier this month. It’s Twitter feed hasn’t been updated since Oct. 9.
U-Wire is basically the student equivalent of the Associated Press, giving its more than 800 member publications access to reprint stories from other college media outlets.
TheSpectator got this from U-Wire’s general manager, Tom Orr:
“U-Wire has temporarily suspended its print wire operations. The company is in the process of trying to get the wire relaunched as quickly as possible and when more information is available it will be made public.”
Here’s what Joe Weasel, co-founder and CEO of Palestra.net — U-Wire’s new owner, had to say about changes in the company during a March interview with College Media Matters:
“[W]e’re trying to find an outlet and find the mechanism whereby students can get even more engaged in not only print and text but digital journalism. We’re trying to get students as much exposure as possible…”
By now, we’ve all grown uncomfortably accustomed to hazy circumstances surrounding media companies in the midst of “difficulties.” While details are still scant, let’s hope most of their problems are indeed technical.
Otherwise, what does this mean for those more than 800 outlets who utilized U-Wire content? My take on it is as page counts continue to shrink, college outlets should become less reliant on wires like the AP and U-Wire to fill their pages.
Though at times necessary, wire content , often placed on pages for a “filler,” is becoming increasingly less valuable to audiences who turn to college media for localized coverage that they can’t get anywhere else. Outlets should turn to their staff to produce original content, rather than rely on U-Wire stories that may not be as worthwhile to readers.
So how does U-Wire fit into a more localized news equation? It look’s like we’ll have to wait and see.
And it’s hardly a new development that news has moved increasingly online and most newspapers have delved — or at least dabbled — in the world of video and audio. But how has this transition translated in the journalism classroom? More specifically, have the lines finally blurred between traditional broadcast, print and visual concentrations?
Maybe not just yet, but the barriers that used to exist have fallen, said Terry Eiler, a professor at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication. Eiler works with the university’s multimedia graduate program, which blends different journalistic disciplines and focuses on interactive media.
“At the core of the curriculum is the ability to learn,” Eiler said. “It would make no sense to teach Quark when in a few years you’re going to be using InDesign. You don’t teach a software package — you teach the ability to learn.”
Traditional journalism concentrations may fade as curriculum embraces multimedia, but students will always have an area of focus, Eiler said.
“I think it will be a mix up,” Eiler said. “You’re going to have your traditional journalistic elements, you’re going to learn to take a picture, you’re going to learn HTML. It’s a challenge. There are a whole lot of things to to teach. But there’s been trade-offs — you don’t have to teach typesetting anymore.”
Like OU, the University of Missouri broke new media ground a few years ago by offering a degree in convergence journalism. I spoke with the program’s chair Lynda Kraxberger in an e-mail interview, where she discussed the merging of different journalistic backgrounds and the value of visual story telling.
How does the university’s convergence program differ from a traditional journalism concentration? How could a student benefit from enrolling in the program?
In convergence journalism students have an opportunity to learn multiple methods of telling stories rather than words alone. Students learn how to tell stories for traditional media, radio, television and print, as well as photojournalism techniques. Then, they learn how the different tools can help them tell stories using new information delivery platforms. (ie: live blogging, cell phones)
What prompted the University of Missouri to start a specific convergence program?
Our program launched in 2005 after a great deal of debate about how the World Wide Web (especially) was changing the media landscape. We observed some places that tried to overhaul their programs and weren’t sure if every student would necessarily want or need to be skilled across media platforms. The truth is it takes longer and students have to work harder to excel across media platforms. We wanted to provide this kind of program for some students while allowing others to continue to create in-depth specialties in one area.
Since the creation of the program, many more students and faculty now believe that all of our students should have some cross-platform experiences. I expect that change to come within the next two years. It’s difficult to implement however, when there are more than 800 incoming freshmen every year.
Are print, broadcast, photo and design academic concentrations becoming more intertwined in journalism education?
Absolutely. There are numerous areas where we cross into one another’s territories. The best thing we can do for our students is to provide guidance about what was (in the past) while allowing ourselves to be flexible about new methods of storytelling that may not be defined precisely by the old rules.
Do you think that at some point most university’s will merge their broadcast and print disciplines in favor of a single “converged” journalism major?
Good question. I really don’t know. Curriculum agendas in journalism schools are pushed and pulled so often by competing personalities and politics. There are still a lot of people who are afraid that they’ll lose something when it comes to change.
When people watch a video on YouTube or click on something that a friend suggests, they use a different filter and have a different set of rules than when they see something on a television network news program like CNN or FOX. Some of the standards are different for what we expect. Just like we teach students in an English program how to write for a variety of forms in poetry or informal essays—we need to look at the different forms that can be presented with still photography, interactive graphics and video.
So, I think it would be a good idea as a starting place to get more “word” people interested in visual storytelling. I also think it’s important to get talented visual storytellers cross-trained as writers capable of writing with some depth of content using correct AP Style.
So here goes. My first post as the new CICM intern – and it looks like I’ve got some big shoes to fill.
I’m Jenna, a senior (print) journalism major at Kent State University and veteran of KSU’s student media. I’m also an intern at the Huffington Post, where I’m spending my semester blogging in Washington DC.
Before I get too far into this, I have to confess — I’m not a techie. In fact, just a few years ago I probably would have told you I was happy to just to write. Well, that’s pretty much gone out the window.
Like many of you, I’m hoping to enter an industry that’s facing some pretty confounding problems. And that’s where I’d like this blog to come in. In place of the steady “We’re-all-doomed” drumbeat that most media reporting marches to, I’d like to shine a light on student media leaders who are making it work and breaking ground — coming up with innovative solutions to change this industry.
Think of it as a glass-half-full take on the future of media.
But I hope we’re all in this together. I said in my application essay that I hoped to foster a conversation amongst student media leaders, and I intend to do that.
I want to know what challenges you’re facing on a daily basis and what you’re doing to overcome them. I want to know how you’re using cutting-edge multimedia to engage your audience, how you’re organization is responding to declines in ad revenue or how you’re integrating social media into your reporting. I want to focus on your ideas, concerns and hopes for this industry. I’m excited for my run here as the CICM intern. And even more excited to hear your ideas!
So please, throughout the next few months feel free to contact me with your feedback. E-mail me at cicmintern@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter at @cicmintern.
decision to make, freed money and time resources could allow the paper to reinvent itself in a big way, perhaps setting an example for other college papers who follow suit.
or college newspapers, temporarily suspended its print operations. It’s 