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Notice: 2008 Daily Cal Changes
The Daily Californian is in a difficult financial condition, and with the beginning of our fall 2008 production cycle, we are implementing a number of changes that impact the community and campus we serve.
Effective the first week of September, the Daily Cal will no longer be publishing a Wednesday edition of the newspaper, though we will maintain a full online edition at www.dailycal.org, including news and sports coverage and commentary.
All media inquiries should be directed to Editor in Chief & President Will Kane. He can be reached at (510) 548-8300 ex. 410 or at editor@dailycal.org.
For information on how to donate to The Daily Californian Education Foundation, please visit www.dailycal.org/donate, or use these tools:
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For more information, see the announcements and press releases below.
August 25, 2008 Announcement in The Daily Californian
August 25, 2008 Announcement in The Daily Californian
The Daily Californian is in a difficult financial condition, and with the beginning of our fall production cycle this week, we are implementing a number of changes that impact the community and campus we serve.
In short, beginning next week the Daily Cal will no longer be publishing a Wednesday edition of the newspaper, though we will maintain a full online edition. We will also be scaling back the size of our staff and reducing compensation.
Falling print advertising revenue coupled with steadily rising costs are affecting newspapers across the nation and those effects have, without question, reached Berkeley. The East Bay Daily News shut its doors in March, and in April the Berkeley Daily Planet cut its publication from two days to one per week.
The Daily Cal is certainly unique in Berkeley, functioning as an entirely student-produced publication which is financially and editorially independent from the University of California. But it is not immune to the tides of change.
The good news is that we will not be compromising the quality or integrity of our award-winning journalism. In the 10,000 copies of the paper distributed around campus and in the city of Berkeley, on our Web site at www.dailycal.org, and in our new blogs and multimedia content, you can count on the very best news, sports and arts coverage, entertainment, photographs and commentary.
Our primary mission has always been to train the next generation of superior journalists and media industry professionals—a mission which we excel at fulfilling. In doing so we have provided UC Berkeley and the city of Berkeley with a distinguished source of information free of charge.
This year we mark 137 years of publication and 37 years of independence from the university, making us one of the nation’s oldest college newspapers, and one of the few that is truly independent. Our staff takes seriously the legacy we are protecting, and we understand that we must make changes to prosper into the future.
Proclaiming their independence in 1971, the editors declared “It’s Your Newspaper Now.” The Daily Cal is still your newspaper, and we need your help, your ideas and your readership. This is not the first time we’ve had to scale back our publication. The last time we did, we worked with the community and university to return to our full strength. We look forward to doing the same now.
I encourage any and all feedback, and I pledge to be fully open about our situation in the weeks and months to come. Feel free to contact me anytime at editor@dailycal.org, and visit www.dailycal.org/notice for more information about our situation. Thank you for your continued support of UC Berkeley’s independent student press.
—Bryan Thomas, Editor in Chief & President
A PDF of this release may be downloaded by clicking here.
August 25, 2008
Contact:
Bryan Thomas, Editor in Chief & President
Office: (510) 548-8300 ex. 410
Cell: (415) 272-2184
E-mail: editor@dailycal.org
Effective September 1, 2008, The Daily Californian, UC Berkeley’s independent student press, will no longer be publishing a print-version of its Wednesday edition. The Daily Cal will also be scaling back its employee head-count by 25 percent, but will be doing so without direct lay-offs.
We are taking these steps in response to difficult market conditions affecting newspapers nationwide. Newspaper advertising revenue has decreased over the last several years, and the financial challenge is being compounded by a weak economy. This condition has struck close to home, with the East Bay Daily News shutting its doors in March, and the Berkeley Daily Planet cutting its publication from two days a week to one in April.
We will be making every effort to return to a full five-day cycle as soon as our financial situation allows.
The Daily Californian, UC Berkeley’s independent student press, will still strive to produce the same quality and quantity of news, sports, arts and commentary, using all of its outlets including the newspaper, online at www.dailycal.org and through its blogs at blog.dailycal.org. Full news and sports coverage, as well as a special online-only column, will still be available Wednesdays through www.dailycal.org.
We are aggressively pursuing new forms of revenue, including the production of video advertising. Apart from traditional print advertising, the Daily Cal offers marketing opportunities through the PressPass discount card (presspass.dailycal.org) the Daily Dining guide, and online advertising on the main site. We also recently launched a photo reprints site, where photographs running in the Daily Cal are available for purchase (reprints.dailycal.org). We will also provide poster-based advertising opportunities via new distribution racks arriving on campus in early September.
In cooperation with the Daily Cal Education Foundation, we are also readying the launch of an endowment fund to provide long-term sustainability. Information about donations can be found at www.dailycal.org/donate.
Further information about these changes may be found at www.dailycal.org/notice.
About The Daily Californian
The Daily Californian is an independent, student-run newspaper published by the Independent Berkeley Students Publishing Company, Inc. The newspaper serves the UC Berkeley campus and its surrounding community, publishing 10,000 issues four days a week during the fall and spring semesters, and twice a week during the summer. Established in 1871, The Daily Californian is one of the oldest newspapers on the West Coast and one of the oldest college newspapers in the country. Daily Cal staffers have the unique opportunity of gaining daily metro news experience in the lively city of Berkeley. The newspaper has consistently covered the city and its institutions since its establishment, allowing student journalists to report on campus as well as city news.
One of the few campus newspapers in the country that is completely independent from the university it covers, the Daily Cal supports itself entirely from advertising revenue and does not receive equipment resources or any form of financial support from the university or the Associated Students of the University of California. The only independent campus newspaper in the UC system, the Daily Cal is run entirely by current or recently graduated UC Berkeley students, and the majority of the business division of the newspaper is student-operated as well.
The Daily Cal took its independence in 1971 and publishes with the name, The Daily Californian, pursuant of a licensing agreement with the UC Board of Regents. The move towards independence was initiated after the university administration attempted to fire three editors because of a controversial editorial regarding People's Park, a university-owned lot in the Southside neighborhood of Berkeley that became an unplanned park for locals.
Daily Cal alumni have gone on to work in virtually every major media outlet in the nation. Notable alumni include 2007 Pulitzer Prize winner Kenneth Weiss, NBC Dateline’s Executive Producer David Corvo, and Rolling Stone Magazine founder and publisher Jann Wenner.
The Daily Californian staff have been awarded a host of awards in recent years, including winning first place in the national “Best in Show” competition in 2007 by the Associated Collegiate Press. Our Web site, www.dailycal.org, was just named the best collegiate newspaper site in the nation in July 2008.
