Newspaper Death Throes, Student Edition

I'm sure these student papers send staff to student journalism conventions where they hear the same lectures on free speech and covering tough stories year after year, but don't try to yank a free trip from the editors at a student paper.

 

It says in that blog that "We do not get paid for any of our work." Really? There's a reputable student paper that pays zero dollars and zero sense? Am I the only one that finds that sort of abhorrent?

 

Yep. I know I went through my college newspaper career unpaid. They just didn't have the money.

 

So Podunk High plays a state playoff football game 250 miles away, and Eastside High plays a game cross-town the same night. Is it okay if I choose to travel to Podunk's game because their booster club "donated" meal money and covered my hotel?

 

Spot.us serves as a publisher for freelancers selling coverage of specific stories. Anything wrong with that?

 

I guess that's another thing that has changed since my days at the ids. We used to get paid, not a lot but a little bit each week. If you were an editor, you got paid more.

 

To clarify, its the BU Freep that doesn't pay, evidently, not the IDS.

But yeah for me, we didn't get much, a small stipend to be an editor and maybe 20 bucks a story. Not a ton but something....so they don't get money from the university, they do sell ads right?

Working for free, zero point zero...just strikes me as wrong.

 

I wonder how many ids staffers are going to Atlanta.

 

Jesus, we got $5 a story, then $6 when you were a senior writer.

 

Does it say in there that those reporters accepted any donations _ or were planning to accept any donations? If it does, then I missed it. It seems to me like the alum heard that they were paying their own way and decided on his own to try to help them out without telling them what he was doing.

 

Who are these IU alums? Are we talking about local business owners, advertisers or wealthy business owner ponying up the cash or a bunch of fellow journos and alums of the paper pooling their money together? If it's the latter, I'm not sure I see a problem with that. To me, it would almost be like hitching a ride to the game with a reporter from another paper.

 

When I was a reporter, I would often pick up bar tabs and meals for student reporters covering the same team I was. I also let them stay in my hotel rooms a few times. Nothing wrong with trying to help out in that way.