Donation helps put Ha’am back in print
By Jamie Hsiung
May 13, 2003 9:00 p.m.
With the help of an anonymous donation, UCLA’s Jewish
newsmagazine has returned to print after four years of being an
online publication.
Ha’am accepted the $3,018 donation, but declined to find
out the donor’s identity for neutrality reasons, said
Ha’am Editor Miriam Segura.
She said Ha’am contains a mixture of political and
religious topics, as well as “anything that’s relevant
to the Jewish community.”
Segura said Ha’am will not be banking on donations to keep
it in print for the future. Instead, like a typical newsmagazine,
its support will come from advertisements.
“It was a one-time event to get our staff together, to
flesh out the fundamentals of making a newsmagazine,” Segura
said.
Because newsmagazines do not typically receive such donations,
concern is raising over how the publication intends to support
itself after the donation runs out, said Student Media Director
Arvli Ward.
“It’s not normal at all. I don’t think
it’s the way to go,” Ward said.
Ward said he received the donation in the form of a check, but
did not see the donor in person. Ward also said he does not
personally know the name on the check.
Though Ha’am intends to sell advertisements to sustain
itself, Ward said that lack of ad sales was why the publication
moved from print to Web ““ where there isn’t any
printing cost.
“They asked to be moved online. It was hard to sell
advertising,” Ward said, referring to the past editors.
The publication is aware of the difficulty in generating ad
sales.
Ha’am is already in the middle of generating a massive
publicity campaign to appeal to various Jewish and Westwood
businesses, Segura said.
Ha’am started preparing for its print issue since winter
quarter, when they received word of a potential donation.
“It was unprecedented. I don’t think it’s ever
happened before,” Segura said.
Ha’am’s first print issue in four years
intentionally came out this past week during undergraduate student
government elections, Segura said.
The issue contained candidate endorsements and served to
encourage the Jewish community to participate more in student
elections, Segura said.
Now that Ha’am has joined the tangible ranks of the six
other newsmagazines in print, its staff has been actively seeking
new staff members, especially those outside the writing field.
“I want people interested in advertising, photography …
it’s almost like a new Ha’am,” said Debra Marisa
Greene, next year’s editor for Ha’am.
Prior to being in print, Ha’am experienced difficulty in
gaining readership when it was strictly online.
“The three days that we’ve been in print have been
more read than the four years we’ve been online,”
Segura said.
Both Greene and Segura pointed out that with circulating copies,
Ha’am has touched readers in places outside UCLA, including
various Jewish community centers and synagogues.
“Now I feel that we’re really established,”
Greene said. “Online, the readership was a lot smaller. Now
people are picking them up everywhere.”
Ha’am was first established in 1972, intent on covering
the persecution of Jews in the Soviet Union. Since then, it has
evolved into a publication about Judaism as a “web of
different cultures,” Segura said.
