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THE HOYA Seeks to Part from University
Senior HOYA staff members are optimistic about the newspaper’s plans to become an independent publication following a meeting with university administrators two days after the GUSA Senate passed a resolution supporting their goal.
On Wednesday, HOYA Editor in Chief John Swan (COL ’09), Chair of the Board of Directors Alex Schank (COL ’08), Business Director Mike Masterson (MSB ’08) and Max Sarinsky (COL ’09), a member of the Board of Directors and former editor in chief, met with university officials regarding the newspaper’s future. Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Jeanne Lord and Director of Student Programs Erika Cohen-Derr were present, along with attorneys representing both parties.
Schank said the parties discussed substantial issues during the meeting, with both sides expressing their views on the newspaper’s desire to become independent.
Olson said he thought the meeting represented a positive step in the negotiations.
“I believe the meeting was an open and valuable one,” he said. “I have been involved in conversations with students about an independent newspaper for a couple of years now.”
On Monday, the GUSA Senate approved a resolution supporting THE HOYA’s independence by a vote of 15-9-2.
Zack Bluestone (SFS ’09), a representative on the Media Board, the advising and funding board for student media outlets, and a student association senator who voted against the resolution, said he thinks THE HOYA’s move toward independence is ill-timed and that the potential for failure is too great.
“I’m not saying that independence should never happen, I just don’t think at this time it is the right direction,” Bluestone said. “The [risks] are possibly going out of business and possible libel issues.”
“We’d have to be very conscious [of the risks],” Schank said. “We’ll plan well and we’ll make the best decision.”
This is not the first time THE HOYA has attempted to disaffiliate itself from the university. Schank said there was a major push for independence in 2006, but negotiations between the university and THE HOYA stalled because of disputes over retention of the name “THE HOYA.” University administrators said then that in order for THE HOYA to be an independent newspaper, it would have to choose a new name.
After the most recent round of talks, Swan said that the name remains important to the newspaper.
“I would say it [the name] is still as important,” Swan said. “That is one of the main reasons we changed the slogan from ‘Free THE HOYA’ to ‘Save THE HOYA.’”
Olson said the university administration is supportive of an independent student newspaper.
“The university has made it clear to students that we are supportive of an independent newspaper,” Olson said. “The issue of the name has been one of the key points of discussion.”
Other student newspapers, including The Georgetown Voice, The GW Hatchet and The Eagle, American University’s student newspaper, recently weighed in on independence for THE HOYA.
The Boston College Heights printed an editorial yesterday in favor of THE HOYA’s independence movement.
“For those of us who currently work at The Heights, trying to imagine a paper still under financial and editorial control of the university seems next to impossible,” the editorial said. “That makes for a huge conflict of interest: A newspaper cannot provide accurate reporting on an institution to which it is so intimately tied.”
Mike Stewart (COL ’08), editor-in-chief of The Voice, said he thinks the name will be too big a concession for the university.
“I think at this point [THE HOYA] is going to have to be willing to give up the name in order to go independent … I don’t think the university is going to relinquish the name.”
Swan said THE HOYA is trying to gain attention for the independence movement through the ‘Save THE HOYA’ Facebook group, the ‘Save THE HOYA’ online petition and a new Web site. As of early today, the Facebook group had reached 672 members, while 503 had signed the official petition.
In a recent edition of The GW Hatchet, Cohen-Derr noted that the university bailed out THE HOYA the last time it was in financial trouble.
“Several years ago the Media Board aided THE HOYA when the paper had a shortage of funds,” said Cohen-Derr, as quoted in the Jan. 14 edition of The GW Hatchet. “When that happened, had they been an independent organization, they might not have been able to cover their costs, so they were running a really big deficit and at that point the media board covered their deficit,” she said.
Swan said THE HOYA would not have run in to the trouble had it been allowed to control its own finances.
“Every year THE HOYA was forced to go back to zero,” he said.
Stewart said an independent HOYA would have an effect on The Voice.
“[If THE HOYA became independent], it would obviously change the role [The Voice] would play on campus. We would then turn into the main school paper,” Stewart said. “But on a daily basis I don’t think it would change much of what we do.”
— Tim Fernholz, former editor in chief of The Georgetown Voice, replaced HOYA editor in chief John Swan in the editing of this report.
Seems like there's a bit of historical revisionism in this article, as it severely glosses over the incident several years back when the Hoya had to be bailed out by the Media Board.
Nowhere was it mentioned that the reason the paper ran into trouble was that Hoya staff FAILED TO COLLECT PAYMENT FOR ADS IT SOLD and ended up in a deep financial hole. This was an aspect of the finances that the paper itself controlled; contrary to Mr. Swan's claim, the same incident could have easily occurred had the paper been independent.
Hey, calm down there with the all caps and get your facts straight.
In 2001, The Hoya lost money. If it had been able to carry a surplus year to year, a one time loss would have been averted. The staff of the newspaper did not know it was losing money because the university would not allow the newspaper to have access its bank account. How is the university a "guardian" of a newspaper when it provides no oversight, and allows the newspaper no means to have the checks and balances a normal small business operation would have?
Another wrinkle I hope that isn't lost on the kids who think this is a great idea: the Hoya is lucrative (and even solvent) because of the national advertisers (movies, etc.) who buy 'the official school newspaper' across the country, whatever that is. They would probably lose this revenue the moment they went independent, and especially if they changed the name. If the economics for professional newspapers are bad these days, try keeping a local student-written rag from going out of business...
Why would The Hoya want to leave a university that does such a fantastic job protecting sensitive information?
Oh, wait a minute....
To say that the Hoya can not survive on its own because of one semester in the red 6 or 7 years ago is ridiculous. Companies posts losses for a quarter or even a year all the time and are still financially sound. If the Hoya had been able to retain earnings, they would be able to take a loss.
Also, being independent would allow The Hoya to pay a "CFO" and therefore recruit some of the best business students at Georgetown, something the small stipend they currently have cannot do. I'm sure many of my fellow MSBers would love to have managing a for profit business while in college on their resume.
Here's a wrinkle: all but one of the Top 25 schools in the nation have independent newspapers, and all of them bring in more in ad money than The Hoya. The GW Hatchet, which is also a twice-weekly paper, brings in double The Hoya's $300K advertising haul. Advertisers care about distribution, and so long as The Hoya distributes the same number of copies to the same readership, its advertisers won't go anywhere.
In fact, if The Hoya could expand its advertising office, it would probably do a better job of soliciting advertisements. A few years ago, most of the advertising in the paper was just from ad agencies who called the paper to place ads. The staff wasn't large enough to spend additional time hitting up local shops for advertising.
One more point -- and this has been written about a fair bit in the national press (USA Today, Wall Street Journal, etc.) -- college newspapers advertising remains strong, even as the dead tree version of the paper isn't doing well for big league papers. So bone up their on your economics, because you're showing a total lack of knowledge about the facts. Two years ago, Gannett, one of the largest newspaper chains in the country and the publisher of USA Today actually BOUGHT the a college newspaper at Florida, and is considering a similar acquisition now in Colorado. Both newspapers are cash cows (and independent). Other college newspapers are so financially set that they own their own printing presses (Harvard) or publish their own college guides (Yale). Princeton uses some of its profits to run a journalism program for inner-city high school kids every summer.
HA!
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