<http://www.nytimes.com/>  


________________________________

February 18, 2008

College Paper Vows to Fight a Takeover by Gannett 

By CATE DOTY <http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=CATE
DOTY&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=CATE DOTY&inline=nyt-per> 

J. David McSwane, the student editor of The Rocky Mountain Collegian,
was looking forward to a quiet spring semester at the Colorado State
University
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/col
orado_state_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  after drawing global
attention last fall for a four-word editorial criticizing President
Bush. 

What he got instead was another storm. 

On the first day of classes in January, Mr. McSwane learned that the
university president was meeting with representatives from the local
daily, The Fort Collins Coloradoan, which is owned by Gannett
<http://www.nytimes.com/mem/MWredirect.html?MW=http://custom.marketwatch
.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=GCI> , to discuss a
potential "partnership" with the student newspaper. 

The Collegian, now worried about its future as an independent student
newspaper, is planning to fight any possible takeover by a media
company. And Gannett and The Coloradoan have become targets for harsh
criticism from college newsrooms and journalism departments across the
country, who portray Gannett as a "dark lord" that wants to rein in
student press freedom.

"If The Coloradoan were to take over The Collegian, only Gannett would
win," The Daily Nebraskan, the campus newspaper at the University of
Nebraska
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/uni
versity_of_nebraska/index.html?inline=nyt-org> -Lincoln, said in an
editorial.

Gannett dismissed any suggestion that it planned to conquer student
journalism.

"There is no grand Gannett strategy," said Tara Connell, a spokeswoman
at its headquarters in McLean, Va. "Gannett is not looking to buy
college newspapers. We look at all sorts of things."

Gannett owns two student newspapers in Florida, however - The
Tallahassee Democrat owns The FSView & Florida Flambeau at Florida State
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/flo
rida_state_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  and Florida Today owns
The Central Florida Future at the University of Central Florida
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/uni
versity_of_central_florida/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  in Orlando. Both
are for-profit newspapers, although the vast majority of student
newspapers, including The Collegian, are nonprofit.

Media companies find college newspapers attractive properties for
several reasons: operating costs are low because student labor is
inexpensive, sometimes even free. Advertising is on the rise. And
perhaps most important, the newspapers are read - frequently - by a
young audience with relatively deep pockets. 

In 2006, MTV
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/mtv_networks/inde
x.html?inline=nyt-org>  acquired Y2M: Youth Media and Marketing
Networks, whose subsidiary, College Publisher, is host of Web sites for
450 campus newspapers.

"College communities are fairly healthy economic engines. There's a
constant influx of students coming in with cash," said Kevin Schwartz,
the general manager of The Daily Tar Heel, the student newspaper at the 
University of North Carolina
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/uni
versity_of_north_carolina/index.html?inline=nyt-org> -Chapel Hill. "The
underpinnings of a healthy market are found in a state university town."

According to Alloy Media and Marketing, which places advertisements in
college publications, advertisers spent $30 million on ads in college
papers in 2006. Alloy also estimated that advertising in college
newspapers increased 15 percent in 2007, from 2006. 

And as John Morton, a newspaper industry analyst in Silver Spring, Md.,
noted, college newspapers have a captive audience. A 2006 survey
conducted by College Publisher found that 44 percent of undergraduate
students read their campus newspaper twice or more a week - compared
with 28 percent who read the local newspaper that often - and 77 percent
read it at least once a month. 

College print publications are still beating their online counterparts
as well - only 24 percent of respondents said they read the college
paper online twice or more a week. (Of national publications, USA Today,
Gannett's flagship publication, has the second-highest readership on
campuses, behind The New York Times, the survey noted.)

College newsrooms are also relatively immune to the market pressures of
the industry. "Our primary focus isn't bringing money to stockholders,
it's providing opportunities for students," said Mr. McSwane, The
Collegian editor, who is a junior from Arvada, Colo. "We don't ever have
to worry that someone's going to come down and say, 'Hey, we have to cut
our newsroom budget because someone in Kansas isn't making enough
money.' "

That independence from the bottom line is what keeps student journalism
fresh and irreverent, or so holds the common wisdom in college
newsrooms, and journalism professors tend to agree. "If there is free
press, it's probably on the college campuses," said Donna Rouner, a
journalism professor at Colorado State who wrote an op-ed for The
Collegian criticizing any deal.

No proposal has yet been submitted, but an advisory committee composed
of students, including a representative from The Collegian, and Colorado
State faculty members held its first meeting Thursday to decide whether
a deal with Gannett or any other media company was worth pursuing. 

Blanche Hughes, the vice president for student affairs, who sits on the
committee, said its goal was to gauge how the proposal would work for
students as well as the university. She said the committee would look
for job and education opportunities for students and assurances from any
company that made a bid for The Collegian that the quality of the
newspaper would be maintained. 

Mr. Morton said he doubted that Gannett's ownership would change a
student newspaper. "I'm sure Gannett has absolutely no interest in
having anything to do with the editorial product," he said. 

But buying student newspapers, Mr. Morton said, made financial sense.
"It's a way of enlarging your footprint," he said.

Mr. Schwartz, the general manager of The Daily Tar Heel, said he thought
Gannett was going after young readers. But he said campus newspapers,
with their easy availability and focus on community-based journalism,
helped to instill the newspaper habit in students.

"Let us make them newspaper readers for you," he said.