The Trouble With Financial Dependence
I attend a small liberal arts college in the Northeast. To be frank, our business manager is new and didn’t consult old applications for SGA funding. Our EIC submitted our application two days late. We received zero funding, and we need $10,000 per semester in order to print. Unless we can raise that amount somehow, we have no newspaper. (We do have a great website thanks to certain outstanding, very enterprising people on our team. But we want a newspaper too. Most people would.)
So the problem is less financial dependence and more incompetence. I acknowledge that. At the same time, I was just elected EIC, and so I have to clean up this mess. I’m learning about contingency funding and deals we might make with our publisher. But I was hoping to benefit from your advice and expertise. I apologize for not being able to be more specific. Thanks for any and all help.
10 Responses
Maybe this is an opportunity in disguise. If you have an outstanding site, why not make it even better? Become a leader in college newspapers and drop the “paper” part of it. There are a lot of things you can do with a website, especially social media and interactive media, that you might not have been able to dedicate to because of running the actual paper part of it.
Whatever money you do get, spend it on advertising for the web site. Next year/semester, when you do get that $10,000, think how much further it will go when your budget just dropped one of its most expensive items.
I understand your loss, and it does suck, but maybe finding the silver-lining will be your way to recover.
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These, of course, are just my opinions :)
Hey there,
I was in your shoes just a few months ago. I am the Business Manager for The Prodigy at the University of California Merced. I was asked to take on this position back in January after the previous BM left/graduated. We had no money and next to no ads. It looks grim, but its not.
We have a website, but it does not have content at all so that avenue wasn’t really an option for us.
The good news is we are thriving after 3 months with 8 grand in the bank and more on the way. It just takes work.
I have some tips and I am willing to help your Business Manager. Just because you are not a line item on your student government’s budget its not the end of the world. Write a bill, talk to some senators and the President and explain why the newspaper is so important to your school’s culture– they will do it. If not then that’s a story! They may not give you the 10 grand for each semester you need, but they will probably throw you a lifesaver.
Next thing is AD revenue. I assume during the summer you practically shut down. Business people should be out there selling ads. I can definitely give tips and tricks there. You will get enough money to print trust me you will.
How often do you print?
Fill Free to email or call me
kellis3@ucmerced.edu or 209.580.6546
–send me your rate card and I will see what all i can do for you.
Don’t worry, if you have some dedicated people you will survive. :)
Thanks so much for your help! I’m relieved to say that SGA is willing to work with us. In any case, I’ll pass your info along to our Publisher-Elect.
There is no doubt you should be able to get special consideration — this is not a club to go out and have fun. Asking for the “regular” funding to keep the newspaper going is vital to a university.
There is no way a SG wants to have the death of the long-time campus newspaper on their hands. You can have a field day writing that — that two days late was the death of the paper with not further consideration.
I think you’re right. I was counseled to play it safe until we actually received contingency funding.
This is just a stupid situation. The College isn’t going to let this stand, and if they do, we should have fun getting this to UWIRE. At the same time, we failed to hold our EIC accountable after some obscene breaches of ethics this year. We should have seen something like this coming.
Funding for newspapers is always an issue. If you have an advertising staff with some confidence, there are a few places that often get overlooked that may be interested in buying an ad or two.
Churches, especially youth groups want to keep kids coming to their services.
Automotive repair shops,
Bars and restaurants, depending on your alcohol advertising policy, don’t be afraid to say, “Do you have a drink special or event?” This one should be obvious though.
Finally, community or township events. There are parades, farmer’s markets, festivals and all kinds of cool stuff. Get them to buy a big one and list the whole calendar. (You’ll probably be writing stories about these anyway)
While $10,000 from Stu Gov would be nice, they may only be able to give you $8,000 or less. Who knows. Going out and getting those ads, brings in a little money and the experience is good, puts a face with a paper for businesses and builds goodwill. Also, the more money you have, the more cool stuff you can do. (Sadly true)
Keep us posted on this… other papers are struggling financially and some of your experience could be an interesting post on here when you’ve got it resolved.
We need $10,000 overall, but it doesn’t have to come from SGA, especially if we’re making cuts and raising more revenue.
The Ways & Means Committee approved our revised budget yesterday. Senate will vote on SGA’s contingency funding budget in September, which includes the allocation of $14,909.75 to the student newspaper. The budget will likely pass, and in future years, we’ll probably be made a line item on their budget.
However, we are making some adjustments that I hope will bring in some money for the website. We’ll be selling $10 print ads (to appear on the Events page) to student orgs. If we sell three per week, we should have nearly $1000 by the end of the year. We’ve also cut our distribution manager position. Next year, members of staff will take turns distributing the newspaper.
Web advertising is the next step. Also love the idea about community events. We’ll be contacting the Garlic Festival planners shortly!
sounds like you are doing much better. All its takes is hard work and dedication. Payroll is a great place to cut. My paper is completely volunteer.
When you do web ads, the best way to do them is to package it with print. When I was at conference, it was recommended not charging extra for them because you don’t want to fee your clients to death. If you ad another perk they may buy a bigger ad.
Good luck :)
Hey, just curious to see how you are doing.
I would assume classes start in about a month or so for you.
Drop me a line.
Hopefully we might meet up at conference in Louisville.
Hey, just curious to see how you are doing.
I would assume classes start in about a month or so for you.
let me know how you are dong.
Hopefully we might meet up at conference in Louisville.
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