Public radio from Western Michigan University 102.1 NPR News | 89.9 Classical WMUK
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Student Newspapers Are Split On Whether To Stay In Print

Bruin staff that transitioned to online.
The Bruin News
/
Kellogg Community College

Some editors now see an online-only format as the best way to get readers and to train journalists. Others worry that their papers will fall into obscurity if they stop their print editions.

Mikhayla Dunaj is the editor-in-chief of Western Michigan University’s newspaper The Western Herald. Once every week, Dunaj walks a route through Western Michigan University, delivering papers.

The Western Herald has a website, but for now it’s kept its print edition. Dunaj says that’s because the print copies promote the paper. They can be placed in class buildings and essentially advertise themselves. But Dunaj says there will likely be a day when the Herald will move all-online.

The future of print media is uncertain for college newspapers. On the one hand, it’s hardly dead. Chris Evans is the president of the College Media Association, a trade group that represents college media programs:

“It’s hard to say that there can be a trend one way or the other because we have so many different situations, so many different types of Universities, and colleges, and community colleges, and private, and public. It’s just so different across the country that it’s hard to recognize a single trend.”

On the other hand, in a survey, the CMA found that more than half of the schools that have print publications cut their number of print runs last year. That’s mainly because their ad revenue was either holding even or declining.

Dunaj of The Western Herald says online-only content is the next step in the evolution for news programs. But newspapers need to gather a following before making that jump:

“Right now it really helps that we have the paper printed and we put it out at distribution points on campus and do distribution events. People see a physical product. If it’s online people have to go and find it themselves or be pushed to it through social media. And we don’t have a following on either of those things right now that people are aware of it.”

The Western Herald isn’t the only school newspaper that sees print as a means to a digital end. The Albion Pleiad has an edition that’s just a single page, and that only comes out a few times a semester. It’s meant to drive readers toward the Pleiad’s online stories. Editor-in-Chief Beau Brockett says the Pleiad also has an email subscription that it’s trying to use to build an online base.

The Bruin's reporters meet with their adviser Simon Thallman in their newsroom.
Credit William Edgerton / WMUK
/
WMUK

One newspaper that’s already gone all-digital is Kellogg Community College’s student newspaper, The Bruin. After 63 years in print under different names, KCC’s newspaper had its last print run in June of 2018.

An advisor for The Bruin, Simon Thalmann says The Bruin’s focus on online journalism will give new jobs and opportunities to the students working at the paper:

“It’s also more realistic as to what they would experience day to day in an actual newsroom. So, I think that’s what we’re really excited about, is offering our students new opportunities and better opportunities.”

Not everyone agrees that social media reporting is the best way to learn. While the University of Toledo’s Independent Collegian has a website, and even a podcast, the staff is adamant about also keeping their paper in print. After advertising revenue for the print version of the Collegian started to falter, the editor-in-chief Areeba Shah and other staff decided to run a Kickstarter fundraiser to keep their paper in print:

“This means a lot to us and especially to me because I’m just so passionate about print journalism. And, I mean, I really did. Everything I know about journalism is from this newspaper. So it’s everything to me.”

Shah says it’s important to keep print news because it teaches journalism students the fundamentals needed to succeed. She says basic skills such as thinking critically are being passed up in favor of the social media aspect of journalism in University classrooms. Shah says skills she learned while putting together print stories like interviewing, writing, and asking the right questions are integral to being a reporter:

“I think that this is really the only place on campus where we provide students with the opportunity to not only develop their skills in print journalism but to also learn so much about journalism.”

The Kickstarter campaign to save the Independent Collegian raised more than $2000, well over the $1500 goal. That means the Collegian got the boost it needed to stay in print. It may seem that student newspapers in the region are angling toward an all-digital future, but as far as the Collegian is concerned print still has a place in student journalism.

Related Content