Monday, January 19, 2009

With the last post in mind...

U. Wisconsin's newspaper competition to the North, the Minnesota Daily, will officially cut to four papers a week—cutting its Friday print edition, while expanding its content on the Web. 

There had been rumors of this happening for some time with Minnesota's state deficit threatening to cut university funds—where much of the Daily's budget comes from. According to the Star Tribune, cutting Fridays will save the student publication $10,000 a month in printing costs.

In addition to cutting a print edition once a week, the staff at the Daily cut bonuses, will now pay per story instead of per hour, and will combine the sports and news sections.

The Daily is not alone in the move toward expanding coverage to the Web. Among many national papers, including the Capital Times of Madison, other student newspapers have cut publication, namely the Daily Californian at UC-Berkeley and the Daily Orange at Syracuse.

Its a tough time out there for newspapers. No word on how the economy may or is affecting the Daily Cardinal and the Badger Herald, the two competing student daily papers at UW. But, it is my hope that a balance will be found soon between print and online.

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