Print news industry faces tough choices

The current trend in for profit print journalism seems to be getting rid of print editions.

These changes seem to be happening at a rate faster than readers can adapt to in-depth reporting in terms of manpower and resources, while giving a voice to a larger and less accountable mass of citizen reporters via social media and the Internet.

The only place this effect is not felt is in campus newsrooms, where there are much smaller overhead costs and less reliance on big revenue streams.

Money made from subscriptions and newsstand purchases has remained fairly flat over the past decade, according to the 2013 State of the Media Report by the Pew Research Center.

During a similar time frame, advertising revenue’s have been plummeting.

This has been forcing the newspaper industry to move toward a less costly model of circulation, pushing more toward electronic delivery of content and generating revenues through online advertising and pay walls that make news consumers pay a fee for access to content online.

This decline is caused by several factors: advertising budgets getting slashed, the market for classified advertising virtually drying up overnight as more and more businesses transition to free, online classifieds through sites like Craigslist.org, and the move away from the pay-per-line model of print media.

This recent decline seems to have turned the scratches print media was experiencing a decade ago into a gangrenous lesion, forcing them to chop off entire limbs of their businesses and transition to online and electronic editions.

On Nov. 1, 2011, the Bay Area News Group, the parent company for the San Jose Mercury News, made the controversial decision to close 11 local newspapers and create two new local papers covering the same territory.

Here at the Times, we are recognizing the transitions in print journalism as an industry.

It is our position that we like other campus publications are spared from such decisions due to less overhead costs than for profit organizations.

It could be that college campuses across the country may be the last bastion for local news printed on physical paper due to the overwhelming deficts from advertisting revenu from our big brothers in the print journalism industry.

We are able to stay in print and plan to stay in print as long as there are printers and ink with which to do so.

We would love to hear what you have to say about these changes in print journalism, and how you feel about our commitment to stay in print.