Gerry Riposa, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, outlined last Friday his plans to perform a feasibility study that would assess whether or not the Daily Forty-Niner would be better suited to be a predominantly online newspaper.
William Babcock, chairman of the journalism department, said the study, funded by the College of Liberal Arts, would gauge whether the Daily Forty-Niner would find a more practical home online in order to save printing costs.
“There are many different alternative [forms of a newspaper],” Riposa said. “There are some who want strictly print, some who want more electronic and one edition of print, a few who want both and some who want electronic form only. … Maybe it’s my political science background, but first I make a hypothesis, then I do research, then I make conclusions.”
According to Riposa, it will take a year before any action is implemented toward the Daily Forty-Niner.
“Ideally, we’ll find the right person to conduct the survey by November,” Riposa said. “We’ll initiate a feasibility survey that will compare and contrast the benefits” of all the different forms of the Daily Forty-Niner.
Riposa also said that by February the study should be completed. “I can’t see us taking any kind of action before … September of 2008.”
Daily Forty-Niner General Manager Beverly Munson said she believed that a predominantly online newspaper is a financially premature move.
“Half a percent of our ad revenue comes from online [advertisements],” Munson said. “If the Forty-Niner were to go online only, it would have about $500 ad revenue annually. We’re not ready for this. We’re not ready to go online only.”
Cal State Long Beach President F. King Alexander said he supports both a print and electronic edition of the newspaper.
“I heard that question of whether it should be online or not,” Alexander said in an August interview. “I think it’s important to have a paper newspaper and to be online.”
Alexander reiterated that point Friday.
Richard Lytle, the executive director and editorial adviser for the Student Media Company, agreed.
“In my view, people are not ready to rely on the computer exclusively for their news and information,” Lytle said, “and advertisers are not ready to put their eggs in the digital basket. You would be shortchanging your readers and your advertisers, and, trust me, you will not replace 100 percent of your print advertising revenue – perhaps only a fraction of it – with online advertising revenue.”
Amara Aguilar, a professor in the journalism department who specializes in new media (such as blogging and online news), recognized the importance of the newspaper’s expansion of online content.
“Media has so much of a presence online; you can’t ignore it,” Aguilar said. “Some papers aren’t ready for that dramatic of a step [going online-only], but they’re taking steps to keep up with what’s going on in media.”
The Daily Forty-Niner has been largely sustained by its print ad revenue since becoming independent from the journalism department in 2003. In the past, when the Daily Forty-Niner has gone over its budget, CLA supplemented the costs incurred by the paper, which usually ran between $20,000 and $30,000, according to Munson.
Last year, Douglas Robinson, the vice president of Student Services, gave the Daily Forty-Niner about $29,000 to meet its budget, which left the newspaper with $544 surplus in its account.
With a circulation of 10,000, the Daily Forty-Niner is distributed Monday through Thursday in the fall and spring semesters. The newspaper averages between 700 and 900 daily hits on its Web site.
The Daily Forty-Niner maintained an online edition using the CSULB servers from 1994 to 2006. During the summer of 2006, the Daily Forty-Niner website began posting its new content off the campus server to Daily49er.com, using the services provided by the Boston-based company College Publisher.
In a memo from Riposa to Babcock, the dean wrote that by when the newspaper became independent in 2003 “it was assumed that the campus community would feel some sense of ownership for this historical news outlet and be persuaded to support it … Unfortunately, this gambit failed.”
He continued by saying that “as of September 2007 the College will not cover the cost overruns for the paper from its general funds … The paper must provide for itself through its advertising efforts or seriously consider alternatives means (sic) of support and production.”
Daily Forty-Niner Editor in Chief Bradley Zint believed an online-only action would have a negative effect on the future of the paper.
“Riposa’s insistence on cutting our printing costs would not only be a great disservice to the university, but especially to students learning the trade,” Zint said. “We’d lose 99 percent of our funding. That’s huge. That’s monstrously huge. There’s the saying that someone is cutting the legs right out from under you. Well, they’re cutting us up to our necks – and beyond.”
In a meeting with journalism faculty Friday, Riposa walked out rather than speak to students and professional media regarding the plans for the feasibility study.
“I thought I was being invited to a brainstorming session with faculty,” Riposa said. “When I meet with the press, I like to be prepared. When I went down [to the SSPA Building], I didn’t even have a clipboard.”
