The morning after faculty voted no confidence in IU President Pamela Whitten in April, a Bloomington resident without internet access left us a voicemail.
He wanted to know the results of the vote, so one of our reporters called him back and delivered the news over the phone. He had one more request — did we have any articles about the county council and county commissioner races so he could determine who to vote for in the primary election?
Again, one of our reporters delivered the news to him personally, this time dropping the printed articles off at his home.
Anecdotes like these reaffirm the IDS’ role in providing important news to our community and demonstrate why the print newspaper is a critical piece of this mission.
Just a few decades ago, you could find newspaper boxes for multiple outlets across the city. One by one, these have fallen away, leaving just the IDS’ weekly edition in terms of free, widely accessible newspapers.
We are always aware of a potential future where print is cut, particularly now that the Media School is developing a plan for the IDS’ financial future — one we’re still in the dark about. Though the conventional wisdom behind print cuts is that it saves costs, the unintended consequences of such a decision would harm students, the community and the long-term sustainability of the IDS.
Print production at the IDS went from five days a week to two in 2017. In 2020, print was reduced to just one day a week. This past summer, the print paper was only produced once a month. The IDS is one of many professional organizations to cut print productions to combat growing financial burdens within the last few decades. Yet each print cut has been followed by a decrease in our overall page views and revenue, while the issue of the IDS’ finances remains.
For the IDS, our weekly print editions have proven to be profitable. Revenue from our display ads, posters and health and religious directories — which will all disappear if print goes away — totaled $92,546 in fiscal year 2024. Our yearly printing and circulation costs for the weekly edition were $65,305 — even after we factor in our student page designers’ wages, we end up bringing in an annual profit.
Beyond our revenue, the nationwide trend toward cutting print harms students. Many professional newspapers still print, which means students interested in page design need weekly opportunities like we have at the IDS. This opportunity is a good one, too — this September, the Associated Collegiate Press announced the IDS’ print newspaper as a nominee for the Pacemaker award for the 32nd time in the ACP’s history. The IDS has won the award 24 times, making it the second most award-winning print publication in the history of the ACP award.
Some designers who previously worked for the IDS now design print pages for Gannett or the New York Times. Cutting print will mean taking away an essential opportunity for students — would those designers have seized those positions if not for their early experience in designing a print product at the IDS? As long as print still exists in the industry, and as long as IU still strives to provide a top-notch journalism education, it must continue to exist here at the Media School.
A Bloomington full of empty IDS stands would be haunting. It would be the end of an era for the IDS, which has provided the newspaper for free since 1995 as other outlets rely increasingly on paywalls. If our fears about how it could affect our overall earning potential are correct, cutting print may even jeopardize the IDS’ ability to tell the stories that matter.
Previous editors have explained how the IDS’ financial issues cannot be solved merely by trimming the “fat,” if any exists at all. Attempts to do so in the past have been negligible, burdened by a changing world that has thrown most media organizations into disarray. We believe IU and the Media School have a duty to fund the IDS — for the good of students, who need a learning lab to prepare them to jump into a journalism career immediately after graduating, and for the community, who depend on the IDS to fill the gaps in the local media landscape.
By covering our nearly $1 million debt as originally promised, IU has shown it understands the role we play in the community. But as we await the results of the five-year plan Media School dean David Tolchinsky alluded to over the summer, we wanted to let our readers know why the print edition of the IDS is near and dear to our hearts.
We also want to hear from you. If you enjoy reading the IDS’ print edition, please consider sharing your comments here: https://forms.gle/radtXbgrWoFMk34M8.
