From sj-approval Wed May 27 21:49:41 1995 Return-Path: Received: by world.std.com (5.65c/Spike-2.0) id AA27361; Sun, 28 May 1995 03:49:46 -0400 Received: from audumla.students.wisc.edu (students.wisc.edu) by world.std.com (5.65c/Spike-2.0) id AA27353; Sun, 28 May 1995 03:49:44 -0400 Received: from F180-113.net.wisc.edu by audumla.students.wisc.edu; id CAA50530; 8.6.9W/42; Sun, 28 May 1995 02:49:41 -0500 Date: Sun, 28 May 1995 02:49:41 -0500 Message-Id: <199505280749.CAA50530@audumla.students.wisc.edu> X-Sender: jedelman@students.wisc.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: sj@world.std.com From: jedelman@students.wisc.edu (Josh Edelman) Subject: Re: Cadence Funding X-Mailer: Sender: sj-approval@world.std.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: sj Noah writes: > While Cadence has had more than >it's share of irreverent material, we feel that, at the end of the day, >the focus of the paper needs to be on news that isn't covered by the >other papers in our school. Kudos to you! I wholeheatedly agree with your philosophy of journalism, but I've got a little question. What are those "other papers" you speak of? Are there several? Are they school-run? Are they any good? At The Indy, we find ourselves essentially without serious competition -- there is an official school newspaper, but nobody takes them seriously, and their level of reporting is pathetic. >1. You mentioned expanding your circulation into one or two other >schools. I assume this also means expanding your staff to include >students at these schools. Eventually, yes. I think distributing at the other schools should come first, though, so that the students get a taste of what we are before they join our staff. If we distribute one or two good issues at other schools, we should have enough people interested in joining the staff to make this feasable. In the future, The Indy could become a paper equally centered at two or more schools -- this would maximize readership and writer base while making us even more free of any particular school. >Are you worried about balencing content between the schools? Do you >forsee the extra costs and efforts being made up for by additional >revenue? Again, the content question will resolve itself in a few months. Many articles we print concern the entire area, while others are more school-specific. If we get recruits from the new schools, we'll be able to broaden the content, but not before. As for extra costs, there will be little. Printing up an extra 1500 issues would cost around $40, I believe; we pay a lot for the first copy, but not much for each additional we run off. And considering that our circulation has effectivly doubled, I think an increase in ad rates wouldn't be out of line. As for faculty advisors, we have none. We did up until about a year ago -- he was a friend of the paper who would pass along staff memos and any teachers' lounge gossip he heard, but little else. He was never invited to layout or involved in any decision-making. Having the F.A. made us an official "club," so we could be a part of the yearbook, the freshman activity fairs, and things like that. Last summer, our school district's attorney told our principal that we could no longer be a part of these things, as we were not school-sponsored. We responded by firing our faculty advisor. I really don't think an independent paper needs a faculty advisor. I think the idea of a paper *without* a faculty advisor sounds exciting and innovative to potential writers; one with one is just normal. On the other hand, the FA can serve as a staff informant and teacher liason, and to that extent, may be helpful. But if any problems with this arrangement arise, IMHO, the paper should not hesitate to get rid of the FA.. You mentioned a "school regulation" that required you to have an FA. What is this? What is the regulation, exactly? What would happen if you didn't comply? Thanks for the great discussion -- keep it up! -Josh ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Josh Edelman jedelman@students.wisc.edu "Lord, what fools these mortals be!" -Shakespere ~~~~~~~~~~~~