Innovation, donations are redefining campus media: Campus Press evolves to paperless publishing

During the Campus Press open house homecoming weekend in October. Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Clary, foreground, and Online Editor Josh Boissevain update content while Photo Editor Rachel Berns explains to alums how images are prepared.

By Joanie Kindblade

This fall, Campus Press ushered in the era of convergence by changing from a weekly print newspaper to an online daily publication at thecampuspress.com. The new format merges a variety of news formats to report CU news and events.

"Campus Press has long had a Web presence," said Stephanie Clary, Campus Press editor in chief. "But we've redesigned the site to include blogs, photo essays, podcasts – even 'News-Team' broadcasts."

Competition from other local papers combined with declining circulation rates caused Campus Press to reinvent itself to serve a more Internet-savvy audience, Clary said.

"CU's students rely on the Internet for so much that it make a lot of sense to put the newspaper online to target this audience," she said.

It began with a large gift from Nonie Lann ('48), a CU alumna whose previous support for the School includes a scholarship endowment. For every dollar the School raises to support this project, Lann is contributing one dollar of her own to match it. An endowment from Sue Deans, former Daily Camera editor, in honor of her late husband, Mal Deans, also provides essential support. Mal Deans, an instructor at the School, founded the Campus Press and served as an adviser to the student newspaper. Interest from the endowment will be used to maintain and update technological resources in the newsroom.

"I know how proud my husband was of helping to get the Campus Press started," Deans said. "Before that, students really didn't have anywhere to get their stories in print."

Using the Internet as a distribution method has changed how the student newsroom covers the news.

"Being online gives us a sense of immediacy," Clary said. "We don't have to wait for page layout and other constraints. A lot of restrictions have been lifted, giving us the freedom to add dimensions to stories."

Updated daily, or more frequently for breaking news, the new layout uses photo slideshows to tell a story instead of the old method of adding a single photo to a 300-word article. Broadcasts from "News-Team" are used to enhance components of the story.

"As one of the two photo editors, my biggest challenge is getting enough photos to put up on the site," said Rachel Berns, Campus Press photo editor. "Since going digital, there have been more photos to assign, and my workload has become more sporadic."

Equally visible online is the addition of a number of student opinion blogs. The blogs range in topics from CU student elections to weekend social events.

"Incorporating the blogs into our newsroom gives us a chance to tell stories that aren't being covered in our main sections," Clary said. "It really lets Campus Press have a pulse on what's going on in the community and brings the community to Campus Press for ongoing interaction."

The changeover from a weekly publication to a daily publication hasn't been without pain. Not only has the workload increased, but there was a steep learning curve for the staff of 22 editors, 50 reporters, two photo editors and seven staff photographers.

"The news that we were shifting to an online publication came down at the end of spring semester," Clary said. "A number of us worked over the summer to overhaul our existing plans and set up a completely new operating plan. We had to do a ton of research to make this as seamless as possible."

The business model has also changed for the publication. Like traditional print publications, Campus Press relies on ads for revenue but needs to attract advertisers looking to target this segment of the marketplace – Internet-focused college students.

"Ad revenue is essential to the success of the newsroom, but online ads are a lot cheaper than print ads," Clary said. "We're starting from scratch in building our ad vendor base, and we're relying on national ads for the majority of our revenue right now."

Instead of using circulation numbers, Campus Press now relies on a variety of Web metrics to measure success, including page views and total number of visitors. The information is captured within the content management system the students use to manage the Web site.

"When we first launched the site, our total visitors ranged from 300 to 500 a day," Clary said. "Now, we're averaging 1,000 visitors each day, with the highest traffic days coming midweek instead of the weekend, as a traditional newspaper would expect." 

While the students on staff at Campus Press are learning how to use new technology to tell stories online, they are still learning the basic operations of a newsroom, which could lead to jobs down the road, Deans said. "I hope the students will have fun, get good examples of their published work and develop a love for covering and editing the news," she said.