How is the Daily Californian (dailycal.org) surviving economic challenges that are rocking major metropolitan newspapers from Seattle to Chicago?

Editor-in-chief Bryan Thomas ’09 says the 140-year-old, award-winning student paper is:

• Drastically cutting its newsroom budget by eliminating the $15 per story payment to freelancers and dropping its Wednesday print issue.
• Asking alumni to do more: This fiscal year, donations are up to $83,000, well above the $20–30,000 received most years.
• Building a $5-million endowment to ensure the long-term viability of the paper. (“We’re a nonprofit that operates like the for-profit San Francisco Chronicle — clearly that’s not working,” says Thomas.)
• Hiring a full-time advertising executive (who doesn’t take a summer vacation or need to drop everything for final exams).
• Going multimedia — within reason. The paper now has nine blogs, 140 new videos posted online, and scores of podcasts.
• Excelling. The Daily Cal went up against college newspapers statewide and won 30 awards from the California College Media Association — nearly double the amount received by its closest competitor.
• Staying true to the craft. “Regardless of what people think is the next model for journalism, I want people to see that professional, trained journalists are necessary to society,” says Thomas. “The idea that blogs or slideshows or Twitter can replace journalism is insane.”

With major newspapers declaring bankruptcy or slashing newsrooms to survive, the thud of a newspaper on the stoop might be a sound of the past. The School of Information’s Yale Braunstein, who taught a class this semester on the economics of information and has investigated financial trends related to daily news consumption for some 30 years, offers insights.

How did we reach this crisis?

Newspapers failed to keep pace with the times, offering tired models — such as a Wednesday food section that originally catered to homemakers preparing meals for the weekend — long after lifestyles had shifted. Then craigslist came along to usurp classified advertising, a mainstay of newspaper revenue, and national chains followed by fleeing to visual media.

Will print newspapers survive?

If newspapers survive they will likely take a zoned approach — a “newspaper of the West” for example — with a “local” section that covers an entire metropolitan area.

What about old-fashioned journalism?

A post-baby boomer generation drives the market and is less committed to traditional beat reporting in which a journalist is dispatched to cover a story. Online newspapers will likely employ fewer reporters, leading to holes in coverage.

Can new media make a profit to survive?

New media will inevitably figure out how to make money. Although consumers are still reticent to pay for online news, they will do it for quality. The online Wall Street Journal is profiting by selling subscriptions and ads, making money from readers and advertisers. Multiple sources of revenue are necessary.

Thousands of Cal alums are making connections through Berkeley’s online alumni community, @cal. The career and social networking site offers Cal-affiliated e-mail addresses with free forwarding, a searchable alumni directory, and discussion groups. If you are a Cal alum, register at cal.berkeley.edu.