It's different outside the ivory tower

It's no secret that newspapers across the nation are struggling to survive. Traditional business models are failing and viable options are taking their time to appear.

Many different potential solutions are being discussed, including giving newspapers unique tax breaks or charging readers for every story they read. These ideas have merit and should be critically discussed. One suggestion that isn't proving viable, though, is making newspapers a purely online venture with no accompanying print product. As often as I hear this idea bandied about, I sadly find that people who advocate for such change too often fail to grasp the notion's underlying economic instability.

Although it's an enticing and seemingly progressive hook on which to hang one's hopes, nowhere near enough revenue can be earned through the exclusively online structure to sustain the staff needed to create a respectable news product. Ask even the most popular bloggers about their monthly ad revenue and they'll tell you some cold, stark facts.

Nonetheless, the exclusively online approach is the path my alma mater is pursuing with its student newspaper. In an explanatory essay posted to the University of St. Thomas web site, my former mentor says it's incumbent upon the school to "lead the way, rather than following heel marks on the news-gathering landscape." To be clear, I am glad they're looking more forward than back.

I'd suggest, however, that Dave Nimmer walk across campus and spend a few days with his colleagues in the business department. For the path he's setting students upon is not commercially viable. And to make students think this new model they've followed in school will play "in the real world" does them a great disservice.

Among the benefits Dave cites in defense of the exclusively online model are that "news stories can be posted daily, not weekly." True. But honestly, if The Aquin staff wasn't already doing that, they were 10 years behind most weekly publications. Other mantras supporting the switch include a pledge to cover campus news in an apparently newfound "fearlessly and fairly" manner, which will "provide valuable practical experience" to students. I applaud those aspects of the mission, but fail to see why these bullet points exist in Dave's essay on the death of print.

More to the point of the exclusively online model comes a promise to "emphasize more news and less paper" and a note that "printing a hard-copy Aquin is wasteful." I'm sure these notions play well among the ecologically minded, but they're not applicable outside the ivory towers of college. What are newspapers that rely on display and classified advertisers to do? Take all those ads online where they're lost in the shuffle, get no static play and cannot be retrieved, save by chance? Online ads are too often ignored, irrelevant or infuriating.

Is it any wonder why online ad revenue is so small compared to the premium prices companies pay for a full-page (or front-page) ad?

One could suggest the economics behind journalism are not the concern of those who gather and report the news. I, however, would strongly disagree. Old dictates regarding the figurative firewall that stands between advertising and editorial no longer apply. Editorial, advertising, circulation, administration — we're all in this together "in the real world." We need to acknowledge this more openly in the workplace and classroom than we have to date and collectively develop a new, more sustainable business model.

We must teach and demonstrate a news sense that is economically prudent. Editors should ask advertising sales reps for story suggestions. Reporters should pass along advertising leads to the business office. Such collaborative methods will only help the newspaper business. These and similar tactics should be explored if not directly taught at St. Thomas.

To instead hear that St. Thomas students are being taught that print is dead — that they should discard a system needing rejuvenation, not final rites — makes me question how well prepared new graduates are to navigate an industry in turmoil.