The Spokesman-Review plans to cut 60 jobs and will adapt a more compact format next June. The Star-Ledger in New Jersey has issued a wage freeze and at lease 200 staff agreed to voluntary buyouts. The Los Angeles Times is looking at cutting another 75 editorial positions, after reducing staff by 130 earlier this year.
Newsrooms across the country are feeling the pressure of a changing industry and campus papers like the Emerald are certainly no exception. Faced with decreases in advertising revenue, budget cuts, rising production costs and a challenge to maintain readership, many papers are asking the same questions: Where are we going and what do we do to survive?
As we search for the answer, readers may be noticing changes that deserve an explanation.
You may have wondered lately why the daily paper we produce has been smaller than previous years, with fewer stories in print and more advertising on the pages. While it is difficult to narrow down, there are two important things to keep in mind. Printing costs are steadily increasing (which in itself contains multiple factors) and our operations rely significantly on revenue from print advertising, which only gets harder to sell as the industry changes. One way we try to offset this is by reducing pages and increasing ad percentages.
What does this means for readers? For starters, less content in print, more content online. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily.
The challenges newspapers face are complicated. There are certainly no easy solutions. But as we come to embrace a digital work that thrives on instant communication, newspapers know one thing is certain: A strong online presence is vital to success.
The Emerald is evolving, and while we may not yet be completely sure what that means, we are working on some exciting projects we want you to know about.
? Blogs updated daily for Pulse, Sports, Opinion and Photography. A full launch is coming Monday, but for a sneak peek, visit:
Pizzaz at blogs.dailyemerald.com/pulse
Press Pass at blogs.dailyemerald.com/sports
Up Close at blogs.dailyemerald.com/photo
? Instant updates from sporting events on Twitter. You can follow the Emerald sports staff at twitter.com/odesports
? Online exclusive videos and multimedia pieces at dailyemerald.com/multimedia. We are also working to rebuild and revamp our multimedia desk with longer enterprise style multimedia pieces.
? A brand new product, Emerald Magazine, is a lifestyle publication for students and the University community. Emerald Magazine launches in December.
This is only the beginning. As we look forward, we need to know what you want. So, readers, we have some questions. What does the Emerald mean to you? What should we be doing differently? What new features would you like to see?
Shoot us an e-mail at [email protected] and stay tuned.
[email protected]