Student Media seeks aid
By Julia Erlandson
April 21, 2009 10:57 p.m.
Faced with mounting budget deficits, the UCLA Student Media department is asking students to increase fees each quarter to help support the department financially.
UCLA Student Media, which houses the Daily Bruin, campus news magazines and UCLAradio.com, is included in a referendum that would increase quarterly student fees by $12.75 and divert the money to struggling campus groups.
Student Media has partnered with six other campus organizations to put the referendum ““ Practicing Leadership and Empowerment to Develop Growth thru Education ““ on the ballot. Of the additional $12.75 per quarter in student fees, Student Media would receive $3.
The referendum will be put to a vote during undergraduate student government elections in sixth week.
Like many print media organizations across the country, Student Media has lost money drastically over the past few years.
With the rise of the internet, newspapers have lost advertising and subscription revenue, pushing many into bankruptcy.
College publications have not been immune ““ Student Media currently expects to lose $140,000 in five years, according to the department’s financial plan.
Anthony Pesce, editor in chief of the Daily Bruin, said as part of cost-reduction, the student newspaper has made budget cuts, reduced accounting personnel and changed its printing company.
“Up until now we’ve been able to compensate with cuts in spending,” he said.
“Now we’ve reached the point where all of the fat is gone, and we can’t really cut any more without losing substance. We’ve sort of realized that if we don’t get some sort of support from the student body, we’re going to have to make some very uncomfortable cuts.”
Arvli Ward, Student Media director, said the referendum would net the department about $200,000 per year.
Though this additional funding would ensure the department’s financial security in the short term, the long-term viability of UCLA’s student publications is still a problem, Ward said.
“The $200,000 will keep us in the black if we continue to hold ground in advertising,” he said.
But because publications may not be able to rely on print advertising as a revenue stream for much longer, Ward said Student Media has begun working on new business models.
Last year, the Daily Bruin received a $275,000 grant from the Knight Foundation to create a new Web platform that would make it easier for readers to interact with online content. Ward said the new platform also includes a marketing tool aimed at local businesses.
Based on social and community networking, the new tool is a cross between Facebook and Yelp, Ward said.
He added that the department eventually hopes to sell it to local businesses.
“For us, that represents an opportunity. We’re very close to the mom and pops. A lot of these businesses tell us, “˜Hey, can you help us get on the internet?'”
But Pesce noted that the grant money can only be used for the new Web project, and cannot cover day-to-day expenses. Even if the new business model proves successful, it will be several years before Student Media is financially stable, he added.
“We’re developing this new business model, which takes years,” he said. “Until then, … we’re going to be suffering hugely, and that’s where student support comes in.”
Though the Associated Students UCLA Communications Board would ultimately have to vote on how specifically to spend the referendum money, Pesce said it would likely be spent on more advising for student publications, as well as on overhead costs such as rent and printing expenses.
Student Media publications have been making budget cuts and experimenting with new revenue streams for several years now but have so far resisted asking students or the university for monetary support out of fear that it could compromise their independence.
But Amy Emmert, Student Media adviser, said she does not believe accepting student fee money would interfere with publications’ journalistic integrity.
She noted that the Daily Bruin is one of only a handful of college papers that does not receive some kind of support from the university, and many of the most respected student publications accept university funds.
“We are in a ridiculous minority,” she said. “Other college papers that have university funding and are housed in journalism departments are independent in every meaningful way.”
She compared accepting student fees to selling subscriptions, which all large professional papers do.
Pesce said that, though he understands students may be reluctant to shell out more money in the current economy, he believes the referendum is an important investment.
“I think (students) need to take a serious look at the Daily Bruin and all the other groups and see what they have to offer. Do students want to live on a campus where, in three or four years, there might not be news magazines to cover underrepresented communities?” he said.
“There are 800 student groups on campus, and some of the oldest and most robust are on this referendum. This plays into the UCLA student experience. What students would lose if these organizations couldn’t prosper is huge. If these organizations deteriorate, I think the UCLA experience will probably decline as well.”
