Complete Story
04/24/2018
Editorial: The University of Toledo student newspaper is dying
Editorial from the Independent Collegian
In 2000, UT threatened our journalistic freedom to report stories, prompting us to become independent. Eighteen years later, our presence to remain in print is being threatened. To put it simply, the Independent Collegian is dying.
Despite the tireless efforts of our students and staff, we are not making enough money from ad revenue to survive.
This is the last thing we want to happen, yet it’s the only thing that will happen if we don’t receive any support. We care about our newspaper, but more than that, we care about truth-seeking journalism, a priority in today’s era of fake news.
Our staff commits to the IC week after week without any pay — something that has been sacrificed within the last semester — for nothing more, but their passion for journalism.
Although this seems like it came up fast, funding has been an issue for a long time coming for the IC and other college newspapers around the country.
According the Collegian Media Foundation: Projections and Analysis for the future plan, in 2000, the Collegian’s advertising revenue was roughly $190,000 to $200,000. This doesn’t take into account how $30,000 of potential revenue went uncollected by the staff due to poor collection procedures.
If the Collegian had sufficient plans to allocate their funds eighteen years ago, we would not find ourselves in this place today. A place where our newspaper is dying.
