Dear readers,

Today, you may have noticed that the front page of the Collegian features a full-page advertisement instead of our daily’s top news stories.

While this might not raise any immediate red flags, we thought we should take the opportunity to explain this decision anyway.

It’s not a secret that revenue numbers, and particularly print advertising revenue, are declining at newspapers across the country. This trend is affecting newspapers, big or small, and even at the college level. So although the Collegian is in a rather uniquely fortunate position, with a community that remains vested in supporting collegiate journalism and truly values our daily missions, we’d be lying if we said times weren’t a bit tough and all is not so quiet on the financial front.

So, we’re innovating – but only a bit. As our readers who have been here for more than one year may note, we’ve cut down on circulation and cut the Friday paper. Those decisions were difficult, but they allow us the financial stability to continue to produce excellent journalism for you, in-print and online, every day. Today’s unusual ad placement was a decision made for similar reasons.

Don’t anticipate on seeing front page ads all that often (truthfully, they’re expensive). As a staff, we also determined that if major news were to break, the ad would be moved before publication. In sum, we recognize that our mission to continue to serve the community is of utmost importance, and while this ad is an innovative (though not unheard of) tactic to help aid our funding, we certainly prefer just getting straight to the news.

For today though, we’re opening up about this ethical conundrum to the community, in hopes that you’ll share your insights and continue to turn the page on how to support collegiate journalism with us.

Sincerely,

Stephen Hewitt, Editor in Chief