Newspapers are an old medium that could arguably be on its way out. We know that. But we also know that shifting to an online-only publication will decimate The Globe’s reach, influence and presence on campus.
Somehow, it seems that student newspapers can defy the growing trend of people solely receiving content through electronic means. In the case of national publications, it’s generally easier to look up a news organization’s website and read the stories for free instead of having to pay for a newspaper edition.
Student newspapers aren’t like that though – for one, they’re almost always free. The Globe originally cost a whopping 2 cents when it was still a single page broadsheet of mostly opinions, but we’re not the same Globe as we were in the 1960s.
Sure, our online presence is paramount to how we as a newspaper can learn to survive. Digitally posting the stories that we work tirelessly on gives us the chance to grow our audience. As a matter of fact, one of our co-news editors had a book review break over 2,400 views, now becoming the third-most viewed story on the website in a little over a week. Congratulations, Peyton.
But what happens when a student newspaper goes completely online? Simple, it folds. It ceases to exist. Student journalism suffers and nobody wins when that happens.
Is this an overreaction? Not when you consider that two student newspapers at Pennsylvania colleges who went to an online-only model both disappeared with little trace. We don’t want to have the same fate as Juniata College’s Juanitian or Seton Hill’s Setonian – all our history and reporting cannot just be forgotten.
Because that’s what we are and that’s what every newspaper is – a rough draft of history. Our editors and writers may not realize it at the moment, but everything that we write will hopefully not disappear.
We are also thankful that every edition of The Globe from 1967 until now is archived in both the University Center as well as the Student Center. Additionally, versions of the current website are available in the University Center archives as well as the Internet Archive’s WayBack Machine.
But we cannot rely on just the internet to keep our mission alive.
Will there ever be a time when discontinuing the print edition of The Globe would be appropriate? Likely not. But if it had to happen, it should not wait until the newspapers of record stop printing or if our printing partners at the Tribune-Review decide to stop letting us use its printer.
It’s not as cool to show your friends a digital article where you’re quoted versus a proper, physical product that has your name in it. People keep newspaper clippings for a reason – they’re cool and will likely last a lot longer than a website that can go down or offline at any moment.
Don’t think that can happen to us? The two old websites for The Globe are gone and not well archived on the public internet. Decades of information, just gone. We appreciate the efforts being taken to mitigate this in the university’s archive and hope it can be public soon.
Until then, don’t expect our newspapers to go away.