Not the water cooler!!!

My oldest son, much to my horror, has shown a strong attraction to journalism and a possible career in the newspaper industry. And why not? He's a gifted writer, way more intelligent than I and has become quite the leader in his 19-plus years. These days, he's studying political science and economics at UC Davis, where he also serves on the staff of the California Aggie as city editor.

Today, it was announced that the school newspaper would make the type of mid-year budget cuts common throughout the industry. Here's what Richard Proctor, editor in chief, had to say to his readers:

Dear Aggie Readers,

Due to mounting budget losses, The California Aggie has found it necessary to make several mid-year cuts. The most visible of these is our decision to cease having a print edition of the newspaper on Fridays. Articles that would have run in the Friday issue of the newspaper will be posted online at theaggie.org.

But wait. There's more.....

Other less visible cuts that we've had to make include closing the front office on Fridays, removing stipends for staff writers and staff photographers, cutting manager pay and slightly reducing the circulation of the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday issues. We have also made an effort to remove anything not absolutely necessary from The Aggie's budget, including money for staff retreats, special training, certain office supplies and the water cooler.

Historically, The Aggie's expenses have been fairly even with advertising revenue. For the past several years, however, ad sales, The Aggie's only source of revenue, have been in sharp decline. This year marks a new low. The primary reasons behind this are two-fold.

First, for approximately the past five years, newspapers everywhere have been finding it increasingly hard to make ends meet due to the increasing popularity of online publishing. Readers can get the same news for free whenever they want, usually at a faster pace. By-the-second updates have made print media less than optimal as a primary news source. By and large, even the best newspapers have struggled to adapt to this new environment. The New York Times, for example, recently started to run front-page advertisements and is facing $1.1 billion in debt. The recent $250 million investment by Mexico based telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim has put off the worst of their troubles for the time being, but their problems are still indicative of the industry as a whole.

The Aggie, along with other college newspapers, has a largely captive audience. As a result, industry ills are often delayed in affecting this newspaper. Those problems, however, have finally come to the fore and are the reason for our increased work on our website as well as our budget cuts.

Second, the abysmal state of the national economy has made advertisers wary of purchasing any ad space, let alone space in a college newspaper. Until the economy improves, it is unlikely that advertising for The Aggie will see any significant increase from what it is right now. Because The Aggie's budget needs to be based on solid data and expectations instead of hopeful forecasts, it was deemed necessary to make drastic cuts right now in order to address the deficit The Aggie will face at the end of the year.

These cuts, while unfortunate, are not without precedent. The Daily Californian, for example, no longer produces a Wednesday print edition.

These are likely the extent of the publicly visible budget slashes, though The Aggie's management continues to meet with both the Campus Media Board and a special subcommittee of the media board devoted to the discussion of Aggie finances. The ultimate goal is to keep The Aggie printing for as many days a week as possible for as long as possible. We take our duty to provide the UC Davis campus and surrounding community with news and information very seriously.

We strongly encourage you to continue reading The Aggie's Friday articles online at our website (theaggie.org); our reporters and editors are still working their very hardest to bring you up to date information about the community you live in.

We thank you for your continued readership and support.

Sincerely,

Richard Procter
Editor in Chief

My son's pay was cut 10 percent - a tad more than my pay was cut last week. Alas, he's facing another 10 percent cut in pay soon.


...Meanwhile, I'm doing what I can to save our circulation, one reader at a time.

While checking my voicemail Monday, I came across a well-reasoned critique of the paper by a longtime reader who was wondering why he should pay for the product any longer. This gentleman, who has been a customer of The San Diego Union-Tribune (more precisely, The San Diego Union, and then The San Diego Union-Tribune) since he was a kid more than 40 years ago, said the paper had become so thin, it was no longer worth it. He counted only a few A-section stories worth reading. The local section was even more lacking. Why should he pay, he asked, when he could get what we were offering for free?

He left his number, so I called him back, fully expecting to get an earful. Instead, we had a cordial conversation in which I detailed the challenges we were facing and argued, as I have in previous postings here, that online journalism should not replace the printed version of the news, but complement it. As he articulated his concerns, it became clear to me that he was speaking not only as a reader, but as a citizen of San Diego who is vested in the paper. He wanted the paper to thrive. He wanted it to be better.

It was a great talk, and I was glad I returned the call. And it concluded with one final pitch. Please, please, please, don't cancel the subscription. If he did, I pointed out in jest, we would have only 37 readers left, and two of those are in my house.

He kept my number. I hope he calls back.


...One last note
Folks who insist on speculating about how many people will get laid off and when the ax will fall should find another hobby. No one except a small circle of executives who earn a much higher salary than I knows what might be going on. And they aren't talking.