The headline in USA Today is a familiar one: College newspapers face weak ad revenue .
Just like for all newspapers everywhere, college newspapers face alarming advertising revenue declines and the need to cutback on expenses to survive.
Except that, in the case of the college newspapers, cutting back is also cutting right to the heart of the education of journalists. In the United States, a large number of journalists cut their teeth on the college newspaper, often receiving scholarships or small work study type stipends to assist them along the way. Now these are on the extinction list, as college newspapers are forced to save money. UC Berkeley’s The Daily Californian, and New York University’s Washington Square News, among others, have cut back the stipends traditionally paid senior staffers.
Not good. Personally, this hurts. It brings back the memories of when I, too, was a student editor and depended on those stipends to get an education.
Back in 1967, at USF…
Not a day goes by that I don’t count my blessings. At the top of my list of blessings is my gratitude to the University of South Florida, and its newspaper, The Oracle, which, in 1967, offered me a scholarship and a stipend to help me get my degree. Without that, there would not have been a college education for me. But, more than that, it was at The Oracle, where I started as a reporter, then rose to managing editor, then editor in chief (1969) , that I realized journalism was the career for me.
My family did not have the economic resources to send me to college. We were newly arrived Cuban refugees in a country that had welcomed us with open arms. My father, a watchmaker during the day and jazz musician at night, told me: Son, I can teach you to be a watchmaker, or maybe you would want to be a musician, but we just can’t afford to send you to college.
I remember saying: Papa, both are respectable occupations, but my heart is set on studying journalism, and I will try to pursue it.
Without my USF scholarship and work study stipend, I would probably sit looking at the inside of watches right now, or playing gigs at some Miami nightclub.
So, it makes me sad to think that others in my same situation today may not have the same opportunities I had. For the journalistic profession,this is a severe blow. Most of my fellow editors at The Oracle of 1969 went on to become reporters, editors, designers. The Oracle experience convinced them that journalism was the best profession on earth. I still believe that. I hope that college newspapers, which enjoy a strong readership (79% of all college students say they read their college newspapers), will find ways to make cuts in areas other than the money they pay their best student journalists.
For complete article: College newspapers face weak ad revenues
www.usatoday.com
The newspaper as protagonist
The real newsroom of the Sun Sentinel (Ft. Lauderdale, FL), where the real John Grogan worked as a reporter/columnist, was used for filming scenes of Marley & Me
(Sun Sentinel photo)
Went to see “Marley & Me” during the weekend. The Jennifer Aniston/Owen Wilson comedy is fun to watch, and, yes, do keep your Kleenex handy for the final scenes. That “bad dog” Marley steals the show completely from its two famous stars. However, for me, who loves newspapers, it was great fun to see two newspapers playing lead roles—-the Sun Sentinel (Ft. Lauderdale) and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Yes, here, the sad story was about the dog, but not about the newspapers, which appeared as vibrant organizations, complete with the stereotypical cantankerous editor (with a good heart), reporters who pursued stories with gusto, and, of course, Owen Wilson’s character-, John Grogan—a reporter turned columnist who manages to capture the heart of his readers, increase the newspaper’s circulation, and who projects the image of the happy storyteller.
In the midst of a never ending parade of bad economic stories about newspapers, it was marvelous to see newsrooms that looked like fun, with engaged editors and journalists and, most importantly, rising circulations. Oh, those were the happy days of the 80s and 90s. It was grand to relive them here.
Now, if only life could imitate Hollywood, at least in this case.
By the way, there is one deliciously funny scene here in which Kathleen Turner plays a monstrous dog obedience teacher. It was great to see Turner back, even when she is far from her more glamorous roles of two decades ago. Here she is fat, mean and funny.
Knowing your audience
Mario Garcia Jr. today writes about Seven Things You Absolutely Need to Know About your Audience.
Here is an excerpt:
Knowing your audience helps you put yourself in their place. Putting yourself in the place of the audience is the best way to approach a communication project. Too many times I’m finding writers writing for writers, editors editing for editors and designers designing for designers, all the while losing sight of the one thing that matters most – the audience.
Only in understanding your audience and what motivates them will you be able to engage them. Understanding them is more than looking at market data and assuming behaviors. It’s taking the time to talk to them and finding the answers to these very important questions. So, what are you waiting for? Ask them.
Go here:
http://tinyurl.com/bg8yht
A designer’s Editor
James Bellows, who died Friday, was what I would describe as a designer’s editor, one of those who lives for the words, and knows that it is content that eventually makes the ultimate difference in how readers relate to their newspapers, but who also knows that design is important to package such good content.
Bellows, who was 86, presided over the redesigns of such newspapers as New York’s The Herald Tribune, DC’s The Washington Star, and Los Angeles’ The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. . All three of those newspapers I profiled as good examples of front page design in my first book, Contemporary Newspaper Design. . To this day, I remember clearly what made the look of those newspapers stand out: crisp use of typography (emphasis on sans serif fonts), well chosen photographs and functionally used color.
I never had the pleasure of working with Bellows, but I know people who did, and he was a visionary in terms of our craft, allowing his newspapers to name “art directors” (a real taboo inside the newsrooms of most major daily newspapers of a certain era). Bellow typifies that unusual combination of the editor who could talk to a reporter about what he wanted in a story, but also address the designer with a sense of how he wanted a newspaper to look like.
All of us welcome such editors when we find them.
Of special interest (a follow up to our previous blog postings on the subject, and, particularly for our Weekend Musings):
How Financial Times Defies the Times
Famed Pink Broadsheet in the Black by Raising Price, Charging for Web
– USA: Newspapers make move to online only
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008823971_onlinepapers07.html
– Jim Brady to News Sites: Experiment More, Now
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=159623
– Could Customized Newspapers Bring Readers Back?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/business/media/09print.html?_r=1&ref=media
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To read TheRodrigoFino blog, in Spanish, go:
https://garciamedia.com/latinamerica/blog/
TheMarioBlog posting #208