A price on their head

Observations on free speech

By Nicholas Wapshott Published 28 February 2008

Student journalists on the Rocky Mountain Collegian, Colorado State University's student newspaper, have been dealt a sharp lesson in the limits of the American constitution's First Amendment, which protects free speech.

Following the newspaper's publication of a "profane" leading article - "Taser this . . . Fuck Bush" - in September, which hit the national headlines and led to advertisers withdrawing support, the president of the university, Larry Penley, began talks with America's largest newspaper publisher, Gannett, publishers of USA Today, about a "partnership" between the Collegian and the company's local paper, the Fort Collins Coloradoan.

The undergraduate editor, J David McSwane, insists the editorial, prompted by the tasering of a student protester by security guards at Florida University, was intended to rouse students to discuss the importance of free speech, not to cause offence.

"The editorial board felt very strongly that it's time college students, especially CSU students, start talking about issues," he said.

But the expletive use led advertisers to withdraw $30,000 of business and attracted the wrath of Penley. "We have found the unintended consequences of such a bold statement to be disheartening," conceded McSwane.

After admonishing but not ousting McSwane, Penley hinted that that would not be the end of the matter. "While student journalists enjoy all the privileges and protections of the First Amendment, they must also accept full responsibility for the choices they make," he announced, before opening secret negotiations with Gannett to explore whether the company might take a stake in the Collegian or combine its efforts with its Fort Collins paper. Neither McSwane nor any other student was invited to take part in the talks.

"They knew what I was going to say: that the Collegian has been here for 117 years, and it'd be a disgrace to be sold to a media giant," McSwane said. The merger has invited condemnation, not least from other student editors who fear their own university authorities could sell their newspapers from under them.

"If CSU's president gets his way, the university could be known as the school that sold its newspaper to a national corporation against the will of its students, its alumni, and journalism professors nationwide," declared the Harvard Crimson. Undeterred, Penley has set up a committee to assess the Coloradoan's proposals.

Bob Moore, the editor of the Coloradoan, said there were commercial reasons behind Gannett's move. "You're talking about a city of 140,000 people, and more than 30,000 of them have direct ties to the university," he said. "It's a part of our community that we've wanted to serve for a long time." Student journalists will hear their fate on 10 March, when the merger criteria will be posted on the university's website. The committee assessing the merger will put its recommendation to Penley in May.

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1 comment

Thu, 2008-02-28 23:50 — 4harrington

If you care about the future of your college newspaper- read on:

College Newspapers- beware the USA Today and the NY Times Collegiate Readership programs and the new Quadrantone on line advertising platform. The Big boys want your college newspaper advertisers and they want you college newspaper readers.

If your school is approached by the Gannett/USA Today Collegiate Readership Program or the NY Times, I hope that you will consider this: They will use their newspapers on your campus to financially beat your college newspaper into submission. They can sell ads to your advertisers at a ridiculously low rate for a while to alienate your advertisers. They can sell local advertising with local advertiser inserts. They can even create customized coupon books that are inserted in the local and national papers they provide for your campus readers- Just another clever way to steal your college newspaper advertisers.

Read what is happening now at The Penn State to their school newspaper- the school that started the college readership program 10 years ago! This has not gone unnoticed at some other schools.

http://media.www.cw.ua.edu/media/storage/paper959/news/2004/02/13/News/F...

The large newspaper conglomerates want to get you hooked on reading their publications. They have the same mindset as the tobacco companies- that is to say they must replace older customers with a new generation that does not read the metro papers if they are to survive as a business. The only way they can get college student readers to read national newspapers is by giving them away (actually they are subsidized by your school administration or student government association).

If your college paper has potential for profit, the large newspaper company may offer to buy your paper for a multiple of your greatly reduced ad revenue after they have stolen your advertisers. They may find it necessary just to eliminate your paper all together.

USA Today and the New York Times Collegiate Readership Programs have flatly denied in print articles that they want to take away your college newspaper readers. If that is the case, why are they lobbying almost every college and university in the United States, sometimes for years, to get their papers on your campus? Every free paper on your campus takes readers and advertisers away from your college newspaper. One can only read so many newspapers.

The USA Today and New York Times Collegiate Readership Programs have been cleverly marketed to colleges and universities across the country as a way to enlighten our students and improve the journalism skills of the campus newspaper writers. On Feb. 15, 2008 a joint initiative called Quadrantone was announced by Gannett, The Tribune Newspapers, Hearst Corp and the New York Times. This program creates an unprecedented on line advertising platform that will allow this newly formed oligopoly to offer localized on line advertising on their member online newspaper websites to local advertisers who have relied on the college newspaper to reach students. With Quadrantone, even the on line editorial content can be customized to reach different demographic groups.
Here is the bottom line- This USA Today and the New York Times readership programs are nothing more than a surreptitious way to curry favor with students and administrators under the guise of providing a valuable educational service to our community. Make no mistake about it. The goal of these readership programs is not to enlighten our students and broaden their perspectives as they would have you believe. Their plan involves bringing USA Today and usually the New York Times on campus along with the local metropolitan newspaper (usually a Gannett publication)- They get your school to cover the cost of the papers- not the real cost- just a fraction of the cost- just enough to count each paper as paid circulation that will pass muster with the ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation). That way the large newspaper corporations can justify ad rate increases to their national advertisers.
Once the Readership program gets the local metropolitan and national newspapers on the college campuses, their goal is to steal college newspaper advertisers by offering below market ad rates to local advertisers and below market on line ad rates through the Quadrantone platform. Gannett and the other large newspaper conglomerates share a common goal- encourage the college newspapers to sell out for a fraction of what they are worth.
A few days after the local metropolitan paper and the two national papers are made available for free in nice shiny racks on the college campus, the multitude of ad reps for the local metropolitan paper and the Quadrantone newspaper ad sales reps will be calling on every local business within a 10-mile radius of the campus and they will of course call EVERY national advertiser that has used the local college paper in the last 5 years. They will offer the college newspaper advertiser an ad rate so low that the advertiser will jump ship. They will pitch to the advertisers the fact they their newspaper and online platform can now reach the college students for less money. Now that Quadrantone can offer locally targeted online advertising, the college newspapers that have local online advertising revenue will no longer be able to compete.
"Citizen Kane" is often considered by movie critics to be the best
movie EVER PRODUCED."Citizen Kane" is a 1941 mystery/drama film. Released by RKO Pictures,
it was the first feature film directed by Orson Welles. The story
traces the life and career of Charles Foster Kane, a man whose career
in the publishing world is born of idealistic social service, but
gradually evolves into a ruthless pursuit of power."- Wikipedia
It supposedly centers around the life of William Randolph Hearst, the
undisputed giant in the newspaper industry in the early 1900's. He
tried everything he could to ban the movie from reaching the theaters
and almost succeeded. If you want to see what corporate greed in the
newspaper industry looks like, watch the movie.

But don't worry. When all looks lost, Gannett or some other newspaper giant might come to the rescue and buy out your college newspaper if it has the potential for profit. If the college paper gets bought out, the students that are left now work for a huge multimedia conglomerate, and they can kiss goodbye the editorial freedom they have taken for granted.
If the students start working for Gannett or some other huge newspaper corporation, they better not say something that the corporation does not agree with in the college paper, especially when it comes to politics. Study your new owner's political mindset and commit it to memory or risk being shown the door. Gannett has already bought an independent college newspaper in Florida and is about to buy another student newspaper in Colorado. This is just the beginning. The alarming fact is that the USA Today and NY Times Readership Program marketers have duped students and their administrators into thinking that their motives are purely altruistic. That should insult the collective intelligence of our future leaders.

The student newspaper is in danger of being destroyed by a modern day Citizen Kane.