College newspapers defy national trends
Fewer people are reading newspapers, but students are still reading their college newspapers.
Renee Sessions, Staff Writer
Issue date: 3/17/08 Section: News
The circulation and readership of daily newspapers has declined for decades. As professionals ride the downward spiral, however, college newspapers continue to thrive.
Rick Wilber, an assistant professor of mass communications at USF who has extensive background in newspaper writing and editing, said the great characteristic that college newspapers share is hyper-locality - the ability to report on what matters to a narrow readership.
For a college newspaper, the campus is like a town, and for many, that paper may be the only source of news they see on a regular basis, Wilber said.
In the Wall Street Journal article "Big Media on Campus," reporter Emily Steel said that while professional newspapers have experienced lagging circulation and low readership among younger demographics, the success of college newspapers has been fixed in the market.
"Hip, local, relevant and generated by students themselves, college newspapers have held steady readership in recent years while newspapers in general have seen theirs shrink," Steel wrote.
Marketing research company Student Monitor biannually surveys 1,200 full-time students from four-year institutions nationwide to gather data on the college market.
Its most recent findings revealed that 72 percent of college students read at least one of the last five issues of their school's newspaper and 51 percent had read three of the last five issues.
Conversely, only 43 percent of students reported reading at least one national newspaper a week, with the New York Times and USA Today leading the list with 18 and 17 percent, respectively.
Steel said most students still read their college's paper and feel a connection to it because the content is relevant to their particular communities and interests.
"Campus newspapers offer news that is unique, about students, faculty, administrations, and, for the most part, free," she said.
In its 2007 Report on the State of the News Media, the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) reported that although approximately 51 million people still buy a newspaper and 124 million still read one, "print newspaper is unquestionably ailing."
Rick Wilber, an assistant professor of mass communications at USF who has extensive background in newspaper writing and editing, said the great characteristic that college newspapers share is hyper-locality - the ability to report on what matters to a narrow readership.
For a college newspaper, the campus is like a town, and for many, that paper may be the only source of news they see on a regular basis, Wilber said.
In the Wall Street Journal article "Big Media on Campus," reporter Emily Steel said that while professional newspapers have experienced lagging circulation and low readership among younger demographics, the success of college newspapers has been fixed in the market.
"Hip, local, relevant and generated by students themselves, college newspapers have held steady readership in recent years while newspapers in general have seen theirs shrink," Steel wrote.
Marketing research company Student Monitor biannually surveys 1,200 full-time students from four-year institutions nationwide to gather data on the college market.
Its most recent findings revealed that 72 percent of college students read at least one of the last five issues of their school's newspaper and 51 percent had read three of the last five issues.
Conversely, only 43 percent of students reported reading at least one national newspaper a week, with the New York Times and USA Today leading the list with 18 and 17 percent, respectively.
Steel said most students still read their college's paper and feel a connection to it because the content is relevant to their particular communities and interests.
"Campus newspapers offer news that is unique, about students, faculty, administrations, and, for the most part, free," she said.
In its 2007 Report on the State of the News Media, the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) reported that although approximately 51 million people still buy a newspaper and 124 million still read one, "print newspaper is unquestionably ailing."
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