Missourian not immune to industry's ills

Piotr,
My contention is that journalism training is the same across the board. Believe it or not, I took photo journalism and broadcast journalism classes as well as the newspaper sequence. Oh, and advertising as well. And typography. That is the beauty of Mizzou. A broad experience. And throwing the white flag up in the air and ending the printer paper doesn't better that experience. It lessens it. Missouri churns out reporters and writers still. And that benefits all forms of media. Don't assume that all products of the news-ed sequence are behind the modern times.
The modern times instead have given way to profit margin ahead of journalism. And that, I believe, is sad.

 

Just ran across this from the Columbia Tribune. I found it supportive of what I was attempting to say:



Emily Van Zandt, a senior and assistant city editor at the paper, said she came to MU to work for a daily newspaper that covers and serves the wider Columbia community. Van Zandt said she conducted an informal survey of fellow students in her advanced reporting class and found almost nobody who said they would have made MU their top choice had they been told the Missourian was a campus-only publication.

Van Zandt said she wants to write for the "40-year-old mom with two kids," and not necessarily the "university professor."

Others in attendance accused MU of putting dollar signs ahead of young minds.

"If we continue to center this discussion around how the money is going to come in in ways that it used to, at core we’re not having the right discussion," said Jacqui Banaszynski, the school’s Knight Chair in Editing. "This discussion really has to be about what journalism education really means to the university and, by extension, to the world."

Jack Whitaker, president of the Missouri Press Association and publisher of the Hannibal Courier-Post, said he was most alarmed by the possibility that the Missourian would move to a strictly online format, an option he called "tantamount to capitulation."

Whitaker asked that the Missourian create an ex-officio, nonvoting seat on its board for a Missouri Press Association member while they weigh the options. He also said he would discuss with other MPA members the possibility of donating money to the Missourian’s endowment fund, which totals about $650,000.

Many present said the options available to the board could be worse. "The hill we have to climb is not as steep as it could be," said Gus Harwell, the board’s president. "We don’t have to make any money. We just have to reduce the deficits."

 

Not even close to what I wrote, dooley.

I took the fact that the number of students majoring in newspaper journalism was dropping, as well as the fact that you simply do not see many students reading the paper version of . .well, the paper, as clear sign that if the Missourian did go online only, there would be a minimal uproar.

With the online product, there would still be training of journalists to write, edit, shoot and crop. Design training, they'd have to figure something out. But they would. The costs would come way down. And you bet the real-world newspapers would keep an eye on how that online product evolves.

Look, they're examining a lot of options. And the general feeling is that they need to find one soon, because the Missourian's financial future is teetering right now. Among people under 50, it's more and more an afterthought within the school. They're proud of it, yes, but they also understand that an ability to train students in newspaper journalism - NOT magazine, photo, etc., strictly newspaper - will not make or break the Missouri School of Journalism in the year 2008.

Young people can read Romenesko, laobserved, etc. just like we can. They know the score. And fewer and fewer of them are signing up to be on newspapers' team.

 

A news release just put out:

COLUMBIA, Mo. -— Over the past several months, we have had extensive discussions both on campus and with external constituents about the financial challenges of the Columbia Missourian, the community newspaper that serves as the teaching and research laboratory of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. The issue is a complex one. The operating deficit is very significant, but the value to the Journalism School is also extremely significant: It is one of the greatest assets of Mizzou's most prominent program.

We have received a great deal of input from many sources, including the Board of Directors of the Missourian Publishing Association (the non-profit corporation that owns the Missourian), students, faculty and alumni. There is virtual consensus that we must maintain a significant print newspaper presence as a laboratory experience for J-School students. Moreover, VOX, the weekly city publication, is clearly a key experience for the magazine journalism students.

This being the case, we have, in consultation with the administrative leadership of the School of Journalism, decided to sustain the Missourian as home-delivery print newspaper. In order to cut printing and distribution costs, the Saturday edition that is delivered free of charge to more than 40,000 households will be eliminated, and the daily paper will be published five, rather than six days a week.

The Missourian will continue to publish Vox, the weekly city publication. The specifics will be decided in consultation with the Missourian Board and the Missourian faculty. The changes will save about $350,000 a year.

We believe this is the best possible outcome of the months of discussion. We appreciate the rich and varied input that we have received on this issue. We will review the matter after the next three years or so and will solicit additional input at that time.

 

What day are they cutting?

 

They don't have Saturday now, so I'd guess sometime early in the week.

 

Probably Monday -- as other papers have talked about doing -- but the only difference is that most of the papers are distributed on campus, when profs, students, etc., are coming back after the weekend. I would guess the difference in Monday readership is not as drastic for the Missourian as it is for most papers.

 

Am I misreading something from the release:

 

There is no "standard" paper on Saturday, and hasn't been for some time. I believe they started sending out a glorified mailer for Saturdays just for the ad dollars.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

That's correct MU. They started doing that when I was there. The paper publishes its regular edition every day except Saturday, hence the six days a week.

 

KOMU news said a while ago they were dropping the Saturday and the Monday.