At the Daily Emerald, the most significant, immediate change I would like to make is switching our CMS. Our contract with College Publisher, however, isn’t up until June, and we are apparently unable to prematurely terminate it.

The other ideas I have are probably worthy of another blog post. Largely, it’s about changing up the print and online product to better integrate the two. I might even go as far as to say we should drop at least a couple of days of printing each week. Our workflow, I think, would be better suited as online first, and then run the best articles (and comments) we produce in the print edition. I’d also like to integrate closer with the campus radio station and TV crew. Newspapers, in an effort to “own” their content I believe, have attempted podcasts and video, but the natives at those mediums are more likely the better producers.

I completely agree with you regarding the difficulty for EIC’s to prioritize these issues, and the necessary changes associated with them, when it’s hitting the fan. We’re running into the same staffing issues faced at the Alligator, which makes it hard enough to produce a daily paper. On top of that, the EIC doesn’t even necessarily have the power to instigate some of the ideas I have. It requires board action. Personally, I think it would be quite nice if the board called an emergency retreat to start developing a strategic plan, but we won’t have a publisher to lead and follow through with the vision for at least 6 to 8 months.

In short, I’m not entirely confident about our short to medium term ability to make any significant changes to publishing, workflow, and strategic vision. It’ll be an interesting year.

The vast majority of news organizations could not support themselves on online advertising alone, and it’s not because the online content isn’t compelling enough. Online advertising is just undervalued in this market, and newspapers are going to have to do something to drastically increase their site traffic or otherwise increase the value of their ads. That may have to do with reinvention on the editorial side, but it could also just be a problem of the market needing to catch up.

The other issues I feel are more situational. UCLA doesn’t have a journalism department, but we’re turning people away over here. Well over 800 people downloaded our applications (for every department) and we received several hundred applicants for a class of about 125 fall interns. Not many people come here wanting to be a journalist, but there is still a huge interest in participating on the newspaper staff. We just create an environment where people want to work and contribute, and we pay very, very few of our staffers.

I think you’re spot on with Threat Three, but all that means is that papers need to do a better job of training their staffs in social media tools. From my experience, people who are sophisticated photographers and photo editors don’t have trouble learning the software required to make a slide show or even picking up a video camera. Writers don’t have trouble doing breaking news updates and filing a print story at the end of the day, and many of my writers have wholeheartedly embraced blogging. There’s a bit more to it than that, and you have to work on changing attitudes, but it is certainly doable in a year or two of focused effort.

But I would say that it can be difficult to get an editor to prioritize these issues. As Editor of the Bruin I have about 10,000 things on my plate every day, and sometimes things just have to take a back seat. But I guess I don’t need convincing that these issues are important to work on. I hear from a lot of people that college students, in particular and contrary to popular logic, are actually more inclined to romanticize the older days of journalism and emphasize the print product more than the web. Unfortunately, few of those people will get jobs.

What, specifically, are trying to propose at your paper?

Anthony Pesce
http://www.anthonyjpesce.com
Twitter: anthonyjpesce

Also, I think something else that is a treat is the online portion. A lot of journalism students don’t have the online capabilities that some of us have. They don’t know and aren’t taught about blogging, videos, etc. Everything is moving to convergent journalism and some students aren’t up for the challenge.

I don’t necessarily agree with you on the SG funding issue. Not all college newspapers are funded by their universities. The Alligator is completely independent and in a very stable financial condition.

However, if we were suffering, we might call on our alumni for help or start some kind of fundraiser, but I’m about 90 percent sure we would never turn to SG for a handout. It would be a conflict of interest for us.