Archive for January, 2011

Penn State Student Copy Editor: “We Have a Right to Be Bitchy”

Posted in College Media, Journalism, Student Newspaper on January 30, 2011 | 3 Comments »

Allison Jackovitz wants to clarify something about student copy editors.

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While seated recently at a newsroom workstation– sporting a winter cap, sweater, and scarf– the copy desk chief for The Daily Collegian at Penn State University teetered wonderfully between sarcasm and self-righteousness.  ”I think copy desk is a lot of times seen as maybe the bitchy girls in the corner,” said Jackovitz.  ”We are the ones always complaining about fact checks and things coming in on time.  But we’re also the ones that are here until really late at night when everyone else gets to go to the bars, so I think that we have a right to be bitchy.”

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The memorable sentiment is the opener to a fantastic 57-second video by Laura Ingeno posted last week on the Collegian‘s homepage.  Its apparent aim: giving readers a glimpse at the paper’s news production process.  Click here or on the screenshot below to check it out.

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Judge Rules in Favor of Daily Californian Editor in Lawsuit

Posted in College Media, Free Press Fights, Journalism, New Media, Student Newspaper on January 28, 2011 | 2 Comments »

The student press has earned a big victory in California’s small claims court.  Earlier this week, a judge ruled in favor of Daily Californian editor in chief Rajesh Srinivasan in the lawsuit brought against him by the father of former UC Berkeley football player Chris Purtz.

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As I previously wrote, Fresno podiatrist Harvey Purtz recently filed a $7,500 lawsuit against Srinivasan for “intentional infliction of emotional distress.”  The suit focused on Srinivasan’s refusal to erase or alter stories on the Daily Cal or Daily Clog websites that reported upon the unruly behavior of Chris at an adult club and his subsequent dismissal from the university football team roughly four years ago.

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After Chris died last June, Harvey Purtz requested, demanded, and eventually sued to attempt to get the newspaper to delete the online articles.  Srinivasan, on behalf of the newspaper, declined to change a single word or link.  The battle moved to court last week.  And on Wednesday, the judge issued his ruling, siding completely with Srinivasan.  The Daily Cal EIC is not liable to pay Purtz a cent.  And the articles will remain online, untouched.

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Rajesh Srinivasan, editor in chief and president of The Daily Californian. (Photo on Daily Californian site.)

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As Daily Californian staff writer True Shields reports, “[T]he court ruled that libel on the memory of a deceased person is not deemed to inflict legal action constituting defamation on surviving relatives.  The court also noted that the Uniform Single Publication Act– which states that the statute of limitations on a publication is determined upon its first distribution to the public– and the maximum two-year statute of limitations for emotional distress claims worked against Purtz’s claim.”

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Basically… 1) The parents cannot claim Chris was libeled by the newspaper.  Chris would have had to file that claim himself (something he did not do in the years after the stories were published).  And 2) Time’s up.  The stories at the center of this fight first appeared online in late 2006 and early 2007.  This type of claim had to be filed awhile ago.

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As the judge noted near the close of his statement on the decision (click here or below to review the full statement in the docket report), “The court is sympathetic to the pain and suffering endured by the parents of Chris Purtz.  The court is mindful that today’s technology allows stories of loved ones to circulate on the Internet in perpetuity.  However, the court is also mindful of the applicable policies, statutes and case law.”

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In a brief Q&A with CMM, Srinivasan outlined his day in court and his final thoughts on how things turned out.

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Can you describe this type of case in a basic sense for those unfamiliar with how small claims courts work?

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Small claims court is fairly informal in Fresno.  A number of cases are heard on the same day.  Essentially, the plaintiff presents what he is alleging and provides evidence and testimony for his side of the case.  The judge will occasionally ask the plaintiff questions or ask him to clarify something.  Then the same happens for the defendant.  It is a fairly quick process.  [Ed. note: This Fresno Bee article goes into a bit of detail about the hearing, although it clearly takes the side of the Purtz family.]

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You mentioned in our previous Q&A that at least one positive of this situation was the amount you were learning about the law.  What did you learn from the hearing part of the process?

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For me, it was a good exercise in arguing a case in front of a judge.  Luckily for me, Daniel Zaheer from Kerr & Wagstaffe LLP researched a number of cases and crafted several arguments for our court brief.  He and James Wagstaffe, the two attorneys who guided me through this process, helped me prepare thoroughly for this case and gather a good amount of evidence.  The hearing reinforced the obvious fact that solid preparation is essential for giving you confidence in the courtroom.

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Any last thoughts about how everything ended up?

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One of the issues that was brought up in the hearing was whether the Daily Californian needed to keep the article on its website years after the incident and whether the article was still relevant– legal arguments aside.  That is something I have thought about since the trial, and my answer is still that it is important for us to have that article on our site.  It is a slice of UC Berkeley history, and though it may be a small episode in it, it is nonetheless part of the historical record that we maintain as the campus newspaper.  I think it would have been dishonest to this record for us to remove the article from our site.

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Student Journalist Portfolios: How to Build, Sell Your Brand

Posted in College Media, Future of Journalism, Journalism, New Media, Teachable Moment on January 26, 2011 | 9 Comments »

It has become the rarest of rarities: a student journalist portfolio site potential employers actually enjoy looking at and clicking through.

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Every student who wants to work in media should put together an online portfolio of some sort.  But simply having one is not enough.  And most of the ones I’m sent or come across organically are, well, self-centered crapola.

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In a wonderful recent post for TECH@CUNYJ, Rosaleen Ortiz outlines some basic tips for creating a “top-notch journalist portfolio website” (hat tip to the man/the myth/the digital media managerial legend Daniel Bachhuber).

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Among the questions Ortiz suggests that portfolio makers should ask themselves in the beta planning stage: ”What are you selling? In other words, what is your specialty?  Who is your audience and what do you want them to know about you? What type of media do you want to include (e.g., articles, photos, audio, videos, graphics, multimedia packages, social media feeds, etc.)?  Very important: How much time can you devote to updating the site?“

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She includes a smattering of quality portfolio examples in her post.  Building on that list, below is a sampling of portfolios put together by student journalist extraordinaires and recent alums that are worth checking out and emulating in spirit.  In general, they represent what a j-portfolio should be: visually compelling, conceptually creative without being out there, easy to navigate, and a salesman of previous work and future vision.

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Additional reading: Alisha Green’s “How (Not) to Build Your Brand”

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Joe Castelli

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Brian Manzullo

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Alex Vera

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Abbey Niezgoda

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Alisha Green

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Nick Trost

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Greg Linch

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Sean Blanda

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Emily Jane Lawler

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Emily Ingram

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Giana Magnoli

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Sam Kang Li

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UPIU Student Reporters Cover Historic Election in Sudan

Posted in College Media, International Student Media, Journalism, New Media on January 24, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

“Seeing tens of thousands of people line up under the scorching sun with such zeal is a scene that is hard to describe. When it’s all done and the seemingly inevitable decision of secession is made, we’ll be able to say that we were there when they became a nation.”

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Those are the words of Suleiman Abdullahi, a Kenyan student journalist who recently traveled into Sudan to report on the historic secession vote for UPIU.  The student arm of the vaunted UPI newswire service hired two student reporters as stringers to help cover the election, which ultimately resulted in the creation of the world’s newest nation, Southern Sudan.

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Abdullahi, 20, a sophomore broadcast journalism major at Nairobi’s United States International University, spent two days covering the election from the southern Sudanese capital, Juba.

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He boldly charged into his first international reporting gig, employing his “rudimentary Arabic” to interview locals who did not speak English; competing with “thousands of foreign correspondents, each one eager to thrust their cameras and microphones at every passing local”; and navigating within a metropolis boasting a hearty military presence and “tension and palpable anxiety” mixed with excitement.

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One of the photographs shot by Abdullahi published on UPIU.

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As UPIU’s regional director Krista Kapralos, a noted journalist, reported, “When the first ballots were cast, Abdullahi was at the mausoleum of John Garang, the legendary southern Sudanese leader who was killed just weeks after he signed a peace deal with the northern government in 2005. Abdullahi watched as southern Sudan’s President Salva Kiir cast his vote in favor of secession, and he reported Kiir’s historic statement in his UPI story.“

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Abdullahi told Kapralos the reporting experience emboldened him to to continue his journalistic work in Africa. In his words: “I now feel there’s need to report more about Africa, especially at this moment in its history when so much change is taking place. I look forward to go to many more African countries and witness that moment in history as they open new chapters of nationhood or get on the track of development. At this point, I would say journalism in Africa has one of the greatest potentials you could find anywhere else.”

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College Media Random Tweets: “A Narcotic Mess of a Journalism Student”

Posted in College Media, Journalism, New Media on January 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

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Student Press Stories: “It’s Raining in the Newsroom”

Posted in College Media, Journalism on January 21, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

9:30 p.m., Tuesday, January 18, 2010

Newsroom, The Minaret, University of Tampa

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I walked up the stairs to the second floor of the student center and ran into Minaret copy editor Robin Hudson. She was sitting in the lobby, line editing on her laptop.

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She looked up at me, frowning, “I’m working out here now. It’s raining in the newsroom.”

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I heard the water before I saw it— a steady thumping, like boots on a sidewalk. Tears of it streamed from the roof panels in a few concentrated spots.

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Some students were standing around, staring up, in seeming shock.  A few others were continuing to edit and design at their computer workstations, backs turned, heavy sighs mixing with full smiles.  Two students were snapping still photos via their mobile phones, one complaining, “There’s no way to get a picture of water.”

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Perhaps the funniest/saddest moment: A carefree student purposefully letting the water soak him . . . until the maintenance staff came by and informed us the water was from an overflowing toilet. (Have you ever giggled and grimaced at the same time?)

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Ten minutes later, the rain slowed to a drizzle.  Soon after that, it stopped, collecting on the panels like soapy water on a sponge.

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Robin stayed in the lobby for awhile, just in case.

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To tell your own student press story, e-mail Dan at dreimold@ut.edu.

 

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The Daily Cal Lawsuit Saga: An Open Letter to Harvey Purtz

Posted in College Media, Free Press Fights, Journalism, Journalism Ethics, New Media, Student Newspaper on January 20, 2011 | 5 Comments »

As I reported in my previous post, Fresno, Calif., podiatrist Harvey Purtz is suing Daily Californian editor in chief Rajesh Srinivasan.  Purtz is angry that Srinivasan declined to remove or alter online stories about the involvement of Purtz’s son– a former UC Berkeley student– in an embarrassing incident at an adult club.  Every student press advocate, journalist, and living, breathing human being who has offered public comment considers this case egregiously stupid.  I share their sentiments.  Below is an open letter to Purtz expressing my condemnation.

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Dear Dr. Purtz,

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Your lawsuit is sad, and disturbing.  Your son is gone.  Grieve.  Don’t sue.

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You may feel you are fighting a worthy battle to clear your son’s name.  You are not.  Instead, you are wasting the time of lawyers and the court on a case no judge worth her robe and gavel will oversee with a straight face.

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You are also inflicting emotional distress and an academic disturbance upon Daily Californian editor in chief Rajesh Srinivasan, a young man who had absolutely nothing to do with the reporting of the 2006 incident involving your son or the creation of the newspaper’s policy outlining why the reports will remain online.

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And ultimately, instead of accomplishing your goal of erasing the information from the public consciousness, your lawsuit is doing nothing but bringing renewed attention to an obviously sad chapter in your son’s tragically short life.

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Negative Google prints can be cruel, but they are not insurmountable.  The key to fighting back: Do not try to change the reality of what they reveal.  Instead, attempt to provide other prints worth clicking upon.  Get a blog up with posts providing your take on what happened with the adult club incident.  Launch and maintain a more general website honoring your son’s memory.

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Or, more simply, learn to let go.  We can no longer simply erase our past.  We must be willing to embrace the fact that our own imperfections and those of our loved ones are evermore only a search term away from being uncovered.

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The Daily Californian’s decision to leave the reports about your son’s adult club rabble-rousing as they originally ran is not a slap in your face or a black mark on your son’s grave.  It is good journalism.  Every self-respecting news outlet, journalist, and blogger would respond the same way.  As I typically reply to the regular requests I receive to erase or change posts on this blog, I would rather cut off an arm before removing something I consider accurate and newsworthy.

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Journalism’s foundation is built atop the integrity of the information we provide.  If we begin giving in to everyone who wants a quick switch or a full erasure of content, we lose the public’s trust.

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In the end, grief cannot be a cover for student press harassment.  Your singling out of Srinivasan especially angers me.  I do not know him personally, but I still consider him a brother.  We are bonded by journalism.  A fight against one of us is a fight against all of us.  And we will fight back.

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I am sorry for your loss.

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Sincerely,

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Dan

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Daniel Reimold, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Journalism
Faculty Adviser, The Minaret
University of Tampa
Box R, 401 W. Kennedy Blvd.
Tampa, FL 33606-1490

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Daily Californian Editor in Chief Sued by Father of Deceased Former UC Berkeley Football Player

Posted in College Media, Free Press Fights, Journalism, New Media, Student Newspaper on January 18, 2011 | 3 Comments »

Rajesh Srinivasan is being forced to skip his classes tomorrow at the University of California, Berkeley, to attend a court hearing 200 miles away.

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The Daily Californian editor in chief will appear in Fresno County small claims court to fight a lawsuit brought against him by the father of a former UC Berkeley football player who was featured in the Daily Cal and its affiliated blog The Daily Clog roughly four years ago.

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Rajesh Srinivasan, editor in chief and president of The Daily Californian. (Photo on Daily Californian site.)

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Fresno podiatrist Harvey Purtz is charging Srinivasan with “intentional infliction of emotional distress.” As the Daily Cal itself reports with admirable objectivity, Purtz is seeking $7,500 in damages.

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The suit stems from Srinivasan’s refusal to erase or alter stories on the Daily Cal or Daily Clog websites that report upon the unruly behavior of Purtz’s son at a nightclub and his subsequent dismissal from the university football team.

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In October 2006, the newspaper reported Chris Purtz— at the time a 21-year-old UC Berkeley senior– was “involved in a physical confrontation and verbal abuse” of individuals within San Francisco’s Lusty Lady adult club.  Witnesses alleged the Golden Bears linebacker had to be removed from the club after he shoved one employee, directed homophobic and racist slurs toward another, and “demanded prostitutes” for himself and a friend.  Purtz denied the more egregious of the charges.

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The football team suspended him immediately following the incident.  In February 2007, he left the team for “personal reasons.”  Last June, he died.

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A screenshot of one of the articles in the Daily Cal online archives about Chris Purtz that his father Harvey Purtz wants removed.

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In July, Harvey Purtz contacted Srinivasan, calling the articles about Chris “hostile” and triggers adding to his grief over his son’s untimely death.  He requested they be removed from the site.

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Srinivasan declined, per the newspaper’s general policy of not erasing or altering content once it has been approved and placed online.  As he told Daily Cal staff writer True Shields, “I get these sorts of take-down requests pretty often.  I was following company policy, which was here years before I was— I can’t just run rogue in making these decisions.”

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And so this past October, Purtz filed a lawsuit— yet not against the Daily Cal, the writers of the original reports about Chris Purtz or the editors who first enacted the web policy dictating that the reports should remain online, untouched.

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Instead, he is suing only Srinivasan, who was not on the Daily Cal staff or even attending UC Berkeley when the pieces on Purtz were run.

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Daily Cal’s board of directors chair Allen Matthews, a San Francisco Chronicle columnist: “This is an egregious abuse of the legal system and of the vital purpose of our state’s small claims court.  I’m sorry about the family’s loss, but grief is not an excuse for Dr. Purtz to file a reprehensible claim against the current student editor, who was in high school when the original article appeared.”

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Below, in a Q&A with CMM, Srinivasan outlines the impact and strange focus of the lawsuit and his feelings toward Purtz.

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What has been the impact of the lawsuit on you personally?

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I would say that in the last week especially, I have focused most of my attention on it, but I wouldn’t call it an overwhelming burden. I will have to miss class Wednesday to go to the trial, but the original court date was during finals week, so this is a much better alternative. Believe it or not, though, this case has been an incredible learning experience for me.  I am deeply interested in the law as it applies to media, and this case gave me practical experience dealing with this area of the law.

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To be clear, what is the Daily Cal‘s policy about the removal or alteration of content once it is posted online?

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We would only remove content from our website if it qualified for a retraction, which is reserved for extreme cases where a story is entirely untruthful and which requires approval from our senior editorial board. A retraction has never occurred in my time at the newspaper, nor have we ever taken down an online article for any other reason.

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Why is he suing YOU and you alone?  Why not the paper or the original writers or editors of the pieces about his son?

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This is a question that I think only he can answer. When he e-mailed me requesting the $7,500, I pointed out that he should be directing his claim toward the company since the articles were written before I was at the Daily Cal and that I had taken no public action against him. He replied that I had accepted the responsibility and the take-down was in my hands. I believe this was in reference to when I told him that I was the final decision-maker on this matter. But really, I have no firm answer, and he did not talk to our reporter about this case [True Shields] for our story.

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Apart from the journalistic principles involved, is there a part of you that feels slightly bad for Purtz?

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Absolutely. I cannot imagine what he is going through, and I understand that he must be feeling a lot of grief over his son’s loss. Nonetheless, I have to do what is right for the Daily Californian, and that is maintaining our right to host these articles.

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My next post: An open letter to Dr. Purtz

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Arizona Daily Wildcat Editors Discuss Paper’s Coverage of Shooting, Aftermath

Posted in College Media, Journalism, Student Newspaper, Teachable Moment on January 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Top editors at The Arizona Daily Wildcat were preparing for a staff meeting last Saturday when reports first began streaming in about a shooting at a Safeway not far from the University of Arizona campus.

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The meeting never happened. Instead, the reporting began, and has continued nonstop. Over the past week, the Wildcat presented a myriad of stories, commentaries, photos, and tweets about many aspects of the shooting, its aftermath, and its impact on Tucson and UA.

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The newspaper’s impressive feats of journalism join a pantheon of student press successes in covering breaking news of international heft.  (Two examples of fairly recent vintage: the exemplary Yale Daily News reporting on the killing of graduate student Annie Le and the comprehensive coverage of the fall 2009 G-20 summit by The Pitt News.)

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Below, editor in chief Michelle Monroe and news editor Luke Money reflect on the challenges of covering a major breaking news event– and the benefits of being a student news outlet while doing it.

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Michelle Monroe, a journalism major at the University of Arizona, is The Arizona Daily Wildcat editor in chief.

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What were the first steps the paper took to mobilize into breaking news reporting mode?

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Monroe: I was walking toward the door of our newsroom for an early Saturday meeting with the newspaper’s editors when I got a text from my friend [informing her of the shooting].  The news editor, Luke Money, and his two assistants were both sitting at a table waiting to enter the newsroom.  They were at the newsroom before it happened preparing for the meeting, so when the news arrived they were 10 feet away from all their computers, phones and contacts.

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Upon entering the three of them began calling the University Medical Center, Giffords’ office, the Tucson Police Department, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, and other officials to confirm the shooting.  One of the assistant news editors, Bethany Barnes, went down to the hospital and waited until the first statement was released.  They covered the story for the entire day, switching off manning the phones until night.

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Luke also began tweeting updates and writing a breaking news story for our website within moments of hearing about the shooting. As details changed and the full story began to form, the stories were updated and changed and the tweets continued for the next four days. We called the photo editor, Tim Glass, immediately, and he called every photographer on staff until one picked up and headed down to the scene of the crime. He sent another photographer to the hospital immediately to catch any images of victims being taken inside.

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So far, what have been the challenges to covering this story?

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Monroe: The most difficult part of reporting, I believe, was confirming facts, but being up first.  There were a lot of reports flying around.  We were being pressed to get updated reports up quickly.  But unless we had an official confirmation, we tried to not put anything online [simply because] we had heard about it somewhere else.

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Money: The biggest challenge was remaining aware of the fact that although this story presents new and exciting opportunities it also represents a tremendous tragedy to anyone connected with the UA or Tucson.  Balancing that excitement and personal sentiment has proven difficult for my staff.

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What are the advantages of being a student news outlet while covering a story like this?

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Monroe: The advantage of being a student news outlet is that it’s easy to find people who have been personally affected by this tragic event.  Gabrielle Giffords is a huge part of Tucson’s identity and she has a significant impact on the university campus.  Many of the students on campus interned with her, including members of our student government.  It was helpful [to be a student outlet] because we have contact information for almost every member of the Associated Students of the University of Arizona Senate and executive branch and they have strong ties to the local and state government.

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Daniel Hernandez Jr. [the individual who helped save Giffords' life] is a very well-known student.  Many people at the newspaper had personal connections with him and were able to provide his contact information to an unbiased reporter immediately.

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The university is also a center of the town, so we are in close proximity to the hospital where the victims were taken.  Also, as students, we were able to know the correct people at the university to call immediately when the memorial was announced.  We have a very distinct culture and community on campus and as a student news outlet it was helpful to have such a multitude of sources and angles in such a concentrated area.

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Money: Mobilization was as simple as getting people to come to campus.  The fact that we’re students made it much easier to talk to students and enable them to be more candid and relaxed.  This allowed us to more effectively gauge student reactions.  And we had home field advantage.  We had other news organizations asking us who to call and we were able to have that information immediately, many of us in our cell phones.

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Have you covered the story mainly from a student or UA perspective or gone toe-to-toe with the pro outlets and covered it from all angles?

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Monroe: As stated in our purpose, the Arizona Daily Wildcat is dedicated to reporting on campus and world affairs with a specific university or campus focus. Generally if there is no campus connection, we don’t print it in our paper. We chose to cover the story from the student and UA perspective. We have a unique audience that we cater to, so we try to tailor our ideas to fit that niche.  I don’t have a specific count, but I believe we have more than 20 articles written on the subject from a variety of angles with a campus focus.

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However we do report on political movements and we’re working on a story about what will happen if Giffords is not able to make it to Congress, if there is a special election, etc. Gabrielle Giffords was such a large figure on campus that we may choose to continue to cover the political upheaval or consequences of this tragedy.

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An editor in chief before me once once told me that in the New York Times there are six clocks, each displaying a different time zone.  But the Las Vegas Sun has six clocks, all set to Las Vegas time, because staffers there know their strength is in being masters of their own community.  I like to apply that message to the Daily Wildcat.

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If someone is passionate about an article that is newsworthy that may not have a campus focus, we will probably print it. But we work hard to master our community’s ins and outs. If there is a newsworthy article about a non-campus-related event, we will run the wire article because we know our readers would be interested in reading it.  But we don’t have to go toe-to-toe with major news sources about world events.  With this event we are able to go toe-to-toe because Giffords’ story is closely tied to campus.

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Student Newspaper’s Sexual Assault Sidebar Slip “a Doozy”

Posted in College Media, Journalism, Journalism Ethics, Student Newspaper on January 14, 2011 | 3 Comments »

A sidebar run with a recent front-page story package on sexual assault in The Iowa State Daily mistakenly stated that as long as they give their consent it is OK to have sex with individuals who are unconscious, asleep, mentally or physically handicapped, drugged out, crazy drunk or under 16.  Yikes.

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The sidebar listing those categories of people was supposed to sport the headline, “Who Cannot Give Consent?”  Unfortunately, in print, the NOT was not there.  Instead, the bolded hed asked, “Who Can Give Consent?“

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The apparently innocent mistake of #epicfail proportions has stirred cringes, criticism, and sarcasm across Iowa State University’s campus and the web, including Twitter and The Chronicle of Higher Education‘s “Tweed” blog.  The “Tweed” post specifically called the error “a doozy” and, mockingly, one of the “Great Moments in Student Journalism.”

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The Daily has posted an editor’s note atop the online story, confirming, “In the version of this story that was published in print on Jan. 12, 2011, a sidebar was mistakenly headlined. The sidebar, ‘Who cannot give consent?’ was headlined, in print, as ‘Who can give consent?’ This headline error, of course, dramatically changes the meaning of the information presented in the sidebar, and the Daily deeply regrets the error.”

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My take: Hey, it happens.  Don’t let it distract from what appears to be a well-written story and nice design.  I’ve come across separate complaints about the main photo.  On spec, I’m a fan.  It’s provocative without being sensational and captures the story’s news hook and general tone perfectly.

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My Prediction: A Great Student Press WordPress Migration

Posted in College Media, Journalism, New Media, Student Newspaper on January 12, 2011 | 5 Comments »

As I first wrote last week, College Media Network has announced it will soon begin charging many student press outlets using its College Publisher online content management system. The decision is a game-changer for the company, which previously provided its popular CMS free for all, in exchange for online ad revenue sharing.

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Some early comments from student newspaper editors and their faculty advisers have trickled in, most displaying dismay or outright anger at the charges.  Of course, the reactions may not be representative of collegemediatopia’s views overall. (Eds. at the papers happy to go along with the new plan are probably less motivated to speak up.)

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But the voices sounding so far surely embody a larger cross-section of student pubs– ones whose editors at the moment are feeling a mix of disenchantment and motivation to try something new.  As one student editor notes, “Either way, this is the impetus we need to make a change, for better or worse.”

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My take: CMN has served college media well over the past decade.  Have its website templates been especially innovative or even that attractive?  Not really.  But its contribution has never been about cutting-edge or creativity.  Instead, it has been about practicality.  It has provided the most practical means for many student pubs to sport an online presence.

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Now, does CMN have every right to decide to suddenly charge money for the platforms and services it renders?  Of course, yes.  And is the decision based more on rational need than outright greed?  I believe so, yes.

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As CMN’s Rusty Lewis writes, “When this business model was started 10 years ago, the landscape was much different from both a services standpoint and revenue standpoint.  The cpm’s on this media simply do not underwrite the expanding services we provide.  We apologize for the inconvenience this change may cause, but it is unfortunately a reality we have to consider to stay in business and continue to support college media.”

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Yet, regardless of the justifications offered for the new charges, do college media outlets have every right to reject them and go their own way?  Absolutely.  And do I think many outlets should reject the charges and go their own way? ABSOLUTELY.

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The power is in students’ hands.  According to Lewis, in response to one critic of the new pay plan, “We know it will be a difficult process/transition to go through, but we feel it is better than the alternatives.”

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Maybe all the alternatives but one.  WordPress has made it easier than ever to create and maintain a simple, yet attractive, news site.  With just a bit of skill and a steady workflow, the sites can even border on extraordinary.  And by moving to the land of WordPress– or even ascending all the way to handcoded heaven– students can cut the middleman and its new charges out of the picture.

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My prediction: 2011 will be the year of the great student press WordPress migration.  There will be hiccups.  There will be outright failures.  There will be increased stress.  But the mass move will ultimately set the stage for a new era of college media online awesomeness.

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Other early responses to the CMN game-changer (all written as blog post comments, so forgive the grammar slips):

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“As the editor of a small Texas college newspaper whose online website is currently hosted by College Publisher, this new charge is simply out of our budget. We are currently evaluating our different options, including moving to WordPress or buying our own domain and building our own website, but needless to say this is frustrating.  On the other hand, perhaps it is time for our newspaper to break free from hosts like College Publisher and build and host our own website. Either way, this is the impetus we need to make a change, for better or worse.”

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“Luckily, our newspaper had just made the move from CP to our own website with WordPress. We have had a few road bumps along our change, but all in all it’s been a great move. I don’t think we will look back and regret the change at all. WordPress allows us a totally new look that readers have responded positively to.  I think CP shot themselves in the leg with this move now it’s only a matter of time before they bleed out. They obviously don’t understand their target client—small to mid-universities who don’t have the money or personnel to dedicate to a fully custom site.”

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“We currently operate on CP5. I made the switch over when I became editor last year, and it was a lot of work. Now, I can’t help but feel it was a waste of my time.  2,000 dollars is simply not in our budget. My biggest issue with this is that the ‘smaller’ schools are paying the price. Frankly, I feel like I am being punished for going to college with only 12,000 kids. Give me a break CP, way to support.”

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“Our newspaper has finally made a push to bring more people to read our newspaper online. We started doing video, more interesting layout and online exclusives. We’re a weekly with a campus size of 1,600 students. We can’t ensure that we’ll get that many views in a month.We’re currently looking into other options, and there’s more out than WordPress. It’s just hard if you have no journalism program to back you up either.  But honestly, CP wasn’t even that great. I was waiting for a reason to leave it. I look at it as an opportunity to think about what we can do to reinvent our image, web-wise.”

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“The colleges who do not qualify for the free policy are the very ones who cannot afford these kinds of fees. Say goodbye to many online college sites. I’ve been a staunch supporter of College Publisher over the years and have brought many accounts to them. I feel betrayed.“

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Facebook, Carrie Bradshaw & the Student Sex Column Boom

Posted in College Media, Journalism, Magazine Journalism, Student Newspaper on January 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Late last week, I appeared as a featured guest on “RadioActive!”, a public affairs program on Salt Lake City’s KRCL.  The topic of discussion: students and sex, sex, sex, with some student press controversy thrown in.

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Thanks to the power of a paid Skype account, I chatted from Singapore (where I’m leading some j-workshops over semester break) with host Tamrika Khvtsiashvili about everything from Jerry Springer, Carrie Bradshaw, and the final evolution of feminism to the death of dating and why I believe Bill Clinton and Facebook helped contribute to the college newspaper sex column boom.

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Also appearing on the show were San Francisco State University’s Christopher White, the Director of Education and Training for the National Sexuality Resource Center; and Kieran Lyons, the co-editor of Rice University’s sex-themed Open Magazine.

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Given the station’s location, an event of sexual proportions that was of especially high interest to the host: the Utah drop-cappers saga.  For those who do not recall, last May, administrators at the University of Utah threatened to hold the academic records and degrees of nine soon-to-graduate senior staffers at The Daily Utah Chronicle.

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The reason: A series of columns run in the newspaper’s goodbye issue that overtly spelled the words ‘penis’ and ‘c*nt’ via the bolded drop-caps starting each column. The school said the editors had violated school rules, calling the wordplay an “intentional disruption or obstruction” of university activities.  Ultimately, the administrators’ threats proved hollow. The students’ degrees were awarded on time.

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For a full rundown on how sex has revolutionized student journalism over the past decade, check out my book.  (Chances are, your student publication or school is included.)

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Student Paper Paywall Experiment: Initial Online Reactions

Posted in Uncategorized on January 8, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Over the past week, web chatter has intensified surrounding the decision by The Daily O’Collegian at Oklahoma State University to begin charging select readers a minimal fee to access its online content. As I mentioned in my related post, the paper is the first known college news media outlet to attempt an online pay scheme of any sort.

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In an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education‘s Wired Campus blog, O’Collegian general manager Raymond Catalino clarified that, for now, the purpose of the scheme is actually not mainly about making money.

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In his words: “It’s a beginning step in establishing the fact that what we produce has value outside of our immediate market, and people ought to be willing to pay for that. . . I’d be happy to get 100 people the first year. . . . I’m not really doing this for the revenue at this point. I’m basically trying to see if it will work.”

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Bryan Murley, director of the Center for Innovation in College Media, expressed appreciation for the boldness of the attempt.  But according to Wired Campus, he is skeptical “it can succeed on a large scale. He questions whether there are enough off-campus readers who would be willing to pay for news generated on campus. And he doubts any college newspapers will consider total paywalls any time soon.”

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Murley: “This is the time in journalism where we’re sort of going to the coins-in-the-couch model of making money- wherever we can get a little bit here and there to keep things going. . . . And I think that’s really what this is about.”

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A majority of other reactions I came across online were less kind.  A sampling:

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“Ummm, is this part of some academic experiment to see how fast you can kill a paper’s circulation? I certainly hope so…”

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“Wow, I write for the O’Colly and in no way think my content is amazing enough that people would pay to read it. I wasn’t even aware we had a website for the first few months I wrote for it. Our overhead is covered by student fees so this is entirely unnecessary to begin with.”

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“While college sites get hits (through search engines) from all over the world, loyal readership is typically small, but growing at college papers. The group likely consists mainly of diehard football fans that need every perspective on the team and a small group of parents/alumni that know the student paper has a web site. If the students can make a couple hundred dollars a year off these people: more power to them. If they can’t, then they’ll drop the paywall without much harm.”

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“The prevailing opinion thus far is that few people without any [affiliation] with OSU would have any interest in much of the student paper’s content. Instead of making any money off this, they’re simply shooting themselves in the foot and will kill off any non-affiliated readers that they may have had. That’s probably why they’re the first college paper to try to charge for their content- there’s simply no demand for it and most other papers are savvy enough to realize that.

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“I would categorize a college paper and what they produce as niche . . . content. The people coming to view pages here have many other choices. They aren’t coming for general news. I bet their take rate will be pretty good considering these points. For them it will be all about price. Don’t get greedy.”

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“Unfortunately, Cowboy nation may have overestimated its importance, equating the newspaper’s popularity with the football team’s gridiron prowess. . . . Sure, some journo student’s parent will likely subscribe, electronically acknowledging that their offspring is getting a byline and to encourage them in their craft. But, we’re talking about family members and not everyone else who will flock to free Google News to find Cowboy Nation material or to countless other relevant sites offering no charge access.”

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In 2011, Student Press Must Answer the $2,000 Question

Posted in College Media, Journalism, New Media, Student Newspaper on January 7, 2011 | 5 Comments »

For many student press outlets, 2011 will be the year of the $2,000 question.

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In a surprise announcement late last month, College Media Network confirmed that it plans to begin charging student press outlets using its College Publisher online content management system.

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The base price for pubs using the current CP5 CMS: $1,995 per year, with a whole slew of options and possible extras including a $150-per-hour fee for support and training.  (Pubs averaging more than 25,000 online visitors per month are exempt from charges.)  The CMS was previously free for all, in exchange for online ad revenue sharing.

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CICM’s Bryan Murley called CMN’s decision a “bombshell” and “game-changing move.” In an interview with Murley, CMN’s Rusty Lewis breaks down the sudden shakeup, including explaining why it was unveiled in late December.

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As he wrote: “When it comes to paying fees, there’s never a great time to implement such a change or make this sort of announcement. We understand many student publications use the spring and early summer to budget for the upcoming school year, so the start of the calendar year was as ideal as any time. This announcement allows CMN a full semester to explain and educate the market about the new options with enough time for publications to understand what they need to budget for in the coming school year.”

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The remaining questions: What do student media staffers and advisers think of the new fee? Will many pay up?  Will others take part in what might become known as the 2011 student press/WordPress migration?  Will a few student press sites at smaller schools unable to afford the fee simply fade away?

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My answers to the latter three: yes, yes, and, sadly, yes.

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Student Newspaper Headline Speaks of Football, Hints at Sex

Posted in College Media, Journalism, Student Newspaper, Teachable Moment on January 5, 2011 | 4 Comments »

Is it hilarious or cringe-inducing, creative or beyond cliché, journalistic or just-plain vulgar? The current front page of The FS View & Florida Flambeau, Florida State University’s student newspaper, has caught the attention of the Twitterverse masses with its, ahem, less-than-subtle wordplay.

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Specifically, the focus of tweeters’ awe/ire/shock/applause: “‘Cocks Blocked,” the two-word bolded headline dominating the center of the page.  On a literal level, the hed refers to the FSU football team’s victory over the South Carolina Gamecocks. The wink-wink factor: the term also refers to an interference preventing someone from engaging in sexual activity.  (Yes, it apparently even has a Wikipedia entry.)

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Would you run this headline? A few tweeted reactions in the happy and shock categories are below.

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