Students working on college newspapers across the USA are learning an all-too-real-world lesson: Their papers face the same advertising revenue declines and expense cutbacks as their professional counterparts.
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.
“We have to break even this year. Otherwise, we’re not going to make it,” says Bryan Thomas, 22, editor of Berkeley’s Daily Californian, which stopped printing Wednesdays starting last August.
The Hilltop at Howard University stopped printing entirely last March as print expenses mounted amid declining revenue.
It resumed daily publication in the fall as student managers aggressively courted local advertisers, says Johnson Sattiewhite, the paper’s graphic design manager.
