Thursday, May 29, 2014

UC Davis Student Newspaper To Return To Print

I wrote about this earlier this year--the UC Davis paper was going broke and was going to have to close up shop unless students were charged an additional fee, and Davis already has the highest fees in the UC system.

Well, it seems like a little capitalism is going to revive the paper:
Two months after going out of print, the UC Davis student newspaper appears to be making a comeback.

The California Aggie is poised to sign a deal with the Vacaville Reporter, which would print the Aggie in exchange for the right to sell advertising.

Vacaville Reporter Publisher Jim Gleim said he believes the venture could be profitable for his company, Digital First Media, but added that the partnership was driven by his “affinity for college publications.”

“We have a sales organization already in the field. That’s been an obvious problem for the college paper,” Gleim said, referring to the Aggie’s staggering decline in advertising revenue over the past decade, which ultimately led to its collapse.
Good for the Vacaville Reporter and whoever put this deal together.   I was wondering, though, if the increased fee students voted for in February was going to be rescinded now that the paper has a funding stream, but then I read this:
An attempt to impose a student fee of $11.64 to support the publication passed in February with nearly 73 percent of the vote. But the result was quickly invalidated by a student court, citing election irregularities.
Can't say I'm shocked by "voting irregularities", of course, but that's another story.

1 comment:

Jerry Doctor said...

"But the result was quickly invalidated by a student court, citing election irregularities."

Well, if any of the newspaper kids can't get a job in journalism it looks like they'll be qualified to work as community organizers.