Spring Break
Campus newspapers continue to beat commercial papers
James Lucente, Contributing Writer, jlucente@smu.edu
Issue date: 11/4/09 Section: News
SMU junior Lauren Parker starts her day off with the same simple routine each morning. She commutes to SMU in DFW traffic, swings by Java City and tries to avoid the morning rush and get her hands on a hot chai tea latte. Finally, she makes it a point to stop at one of the 55 The Daily Campus stands and grabs a copy of that day's issue.
Surprisingly, many students include that last step in their day-to-day routines at SMU. The majority of SMU students turn to The Daily Campus to get up-to-date information about things happening on campus. The campus trend is contrary to what is happening in the commercial news industry today, where newspaper sales are declining. This raises the question: Why are students more willing to pick up a campus paper than one printed by a larger news corporation?
The decline of newspapers over the past year has been a drastic one. An October 2008 article in The New York Times concluded that over the past year newspaper circulation has dropped by an average of 3.6 percent. In some extreme cases it fell as much as 10 percent. Jay Miller, executive director of Student Media Company Inc. at SMU, said he feels the cause of this decline is quite simple.
"The biggest problem for newspapers is that they are losing readership," Miller said. "The younger generations are more inclined to turn to online sites for their news."
Newspapers are also behind the curve for Internet business models. During the early '90s most papers ignored the growing Internet boom and are now trying to play catch-up in the new market. Also the current economic downturn has led to a large decrease in advertisement sales, the major source of income for most newspaper companies. Together these three elements have created what Miller calls "the perfect storm" for the newspaper industry.
While campus newspapers are not completely immune to the declining economy, their resilience to many of the problems facing the news industry lay in their focused readership.
Surprisingly, many students include that last step in their day-to-day routines at SMU. The majority of SMU students turn to The Daily Campus to get up-to-date information about things happening on campus. The campus trend is contrary to what is happening in the commercial news industry today, where newspaper sales are declining. This raises the question: Why are students more willing to pick up a campus paper than one printed by a larger news corporation?
The decline of newspapers over the past year has been a drastic one. An October 2008 article in The New York Times concluded that over the past year newspaper circulation has dropped by an average of 3.6 percent. In some extreme cases it fell as much as 10 percent. Jay Miller, executive director of Student Media Company Inc. at SMU, said he feels the cause of this decline is quite simple.
"The biggest problem for newspapers is that they are losing readership," Miller said. "The younger generations are more inclined to turn to online sites for their news."
Newspapers are also behind the curve for Internet business models. During the early '90s most papers ignored the growing Internet boom and are now trying to play catch-up in the new market. Also the current economic downturn has led to a large decrease in advertisement sales, the major source of income for most newspaper companies. Together these three elements have created what Miller calls "the perfect storm" for the newspaper industry.
While campus newspapers are not completely immune to the declining economy, their resilience to many of the problems facing the news industry lay in their focused readership.
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