ASUCLA discusses ways to improve Student Media finances

Members of the Associated Students UCLA Finance Committee discussed the future of Student Media and strategies to improve its finances at their monthly meeting Friday.

Members of the ASUCLA Services and Enterprises committee and the Communications Board brainstormed about how the groups can work together to improve their finances. The Communications Board is an independent subdivision of ASUCLA that oversees Student Media, including the Daily Bruin, BruinLife yearbook, UCLA Radio and seven newsmagazines.

The committee also approved a Communications Board budget for the next fiscal year.

“This seems to be a realistic budget that accepts the severity of the situation the Comm. Board is in,” said David Zeke, a graduate representative on the ASUCLA Board of Directors and the chair of the ASUCLA Finance Committee.

ASUCLA passed a financial agreement in late February offering Student Media a $200,000 of credit. In the budget approved Friday, Student Media indicated it will likely need to ask for tens of thousands of dollars in additional funds from ASUCLA in the coming years.

About 16 percent of Student Media’s funding currently comes from student fees. The rest is largely from print, online and mobile advertising, which has decreased steadily in recent years.

Many members of the committee said they hope to discuss different models to help sustain Student Media in the future, including a possible fee referendum to balance their budget.

Bob Williams, executive director of ASUCLA, asked Student Media director Arvli Ward to determine exactly how much money Student Media will need in the future to stay afloat. He also asked Ward to provide longer-term forecasts for the department’s finances by their next meeting.

“The sooner (the Board of Directors) knows and understands what’s happening, the more we won’t feel we’re being … backed into a corner,” Williams said.

Zeke said he thinks it is important for the Communications Board to reach out to UCLA students and ask what they want from Student Media, as ASUCLA officials are more focused on the organization’s finances.

Members of the Communications Board and Services and Enterprises discussed working together to offer promotional opportunities for outside advertisers, using both the Daily Bruin and other advertising platforms.

“At one point years ago, if you wanted to advertise to students, you’d do it in the Daily Bruin,” Williams said. “Now everybody has a screen. … Now there’s all these other ways that income is coming in.”

If a fee referendum is proposed, Williams said the association should present students with several models for the future of Student Media operations.

“You say to the campus, here’s a Saturn, here’s a Ford, and here’s a Bentley of media operations, and here’s what each costs,” Williams said.

Ward said the Communications Board is interested in making sure that no matter which model is approved, Student Media receives continued support from ASUCLA.

“I think we’ve bottled something in terms of student aspirations (in Student Media employees),” Ward said. “I think (with) that resource, and the potential velocity of that resource, … we need to see what can we do to build upon that.”