Today, over 100 student newsrooms across the United States are banding together to advocate for student-run publications by participating in a Save Student Newsrooms campaign – a campaign that highlights the challenges of student-run media outlets and seeks to educate readers of these challenges.
Caitlin Ostroff, the managing online editor of The Independent Florida Alligator, said the initiative to start the campaign grew out of the need to collaborate with other student newsrooms to find out what did and did not work for them.
The campaign then took off when Jimena Tavel, The Alligator’s managing print editor, sent out a post on Twitter with the hashtag, Save Student Newsrooms.
“From there,” Ostroff wrote, “We got a bunch of direct message and people started sharing it – an overwhelmingly positive response.”
The goal of the campaign is to act as a conversation starter to encourage community support for student-run publications. It will provoke discussion regarding the hardships faced, such as financial concerns and censorship. In addition, it aims to bring to light the important role these newsrooms have in a university and community.
Jemima McEvoy, editor-in-chief of the Washington Square News at New York University expressed how the massive size and status of the university has allowed them to keep both the university and the city accountable. This McEvoy says, has made Washington Square News more than just a campus newspaper.
“Not only are student newsrooms vital for reporting on university life, but it’s becoming more than that,” McEvoy said. “They’re becoming a local news source.”
Karim Doumar, editor-in-chief for The Daily Californian, echoed this idea by saying student newspapers have the capacity to hold university administers, student government and local governments accountable in ways that other papers cannot.
It’s because of this unique position that many within student media think student-run newspapers need to stay independent from administration funding in order to avoid any pressure from within and continue reporting on all issues. This, in turn, gives administrations less of an incentive to support student newspapers.
In addition to keeping administrations accountable and reporting on community happenings, these newsrooms serve as a unique classroom, of sorts, where students can gain highly valuable and indispensable skills that will serve them far past graduation and into their professional careers.
Beyond editorial and journalistic skills, McEvoy said she has developed leadership skills by overseeing the business side of the newspaper.
“I’ve developed skills as a leader, as an analyst, as a writer, gotten more of a business mind to me than I ever thought that I would need,” McEvoy said.
One common thread shared amongst these student newsroom staff is the often brutally long hours spent in small, crammed offices with fairly low compensation. On top of this already heavy workload, these editors are juggling a full class schedule.
For Southern California’s Claremont College newspaper, The Student Life, student reporting is essential in covering news that is specifically relevant to them and is not filtered through the administration.
Meghan Joyce, the paper’s editor-in-chief, said, “There are very few opportunities for a twenty-year-old to be in charge of over one hundred people, but I do that and it’s a great skill.”
McEvoy said, “Student journalists face a lot of adversity in a number of ways and this movement means a lot to me because I often feel that student journalists are under-appreciated and emotionally beaten up. This movement is appreciating all of the things that never get talked about.”
Due to the looming financial threats, many student newspapers are forced to cut their number of print copies.
“It’s like quicksand,” Jackson Barnett, editor-in-chief of CU Independent, said. “The ground is literally disappearing under our feet as we look at our local media market.”
