The Daily Utah Chronicle is suspending Friday print editions and moving to “green” online issues starting this Friday.
To help cope with a drop in advertising sales and a deficit leftover from previous years, the campus newspaper will not be available in newsstands Fridays until it is financially feasible to resume printing on Fridays.
U students and faculty can visit The Chronicle Web site for Fridays’ news and register to receive an e-mail edition of The Chronicle. The paper will still put out occasional special editions on Fridays to preview major athletic events.
In September, The Chronicle had a deficit of about $40,000 left over from previous years. During Fall Semester, a decrease in advertisement sales added roughly $20,000 to the deficit, said Dustin Gardiner, editor in chief of The Chronicle.
Gardiner said he hopes the Friday print edition will resume next fall when the paper is most of the way out of debt.
“We hoped to avoid doing this,” Gardiner said. “But it’s in The Chrony’s long-term best interest to act right now.”
Readership of The Chronicle has traditionally been much lower on Fridays when fewer students are on campus, he said.
In an effort to further lessen the debt, Gardiner also cut an additional $15,000 from The Chronicle’s budget for Spring Semester. Not printing Fridays will save an estimated $30,000, he said.
Glen Feighery, chairman of the Publications Council, which selects The Chronicle’s editor and allocates student fees to various publications on campus, said an online-only edition once a week gives reporters a great opportunity to work with multimedia, especially at a time when online journalism is becoming more important.
“There are many ways to tell a story,” Feighery said.
Jim Fisher, adviser to The Chronicle and a professor of communication, said the future of news and information is digital.
“My dream is to have regular readership online in the morning and all day long,” Fisher said.
The online version of The Chronicle features several blogs, a video feed and the ability to post comments to stories. There is also a link to Red Pulse Magazine, a weekly arts and entertainment feature.
Registering to have The Chronicle e-mailed to a personal e-mail account can be done by visiting www.dailyutahchronicle.com and clicking on the link “Login.” From there, visitors can register as a “Member” and start receiving the newspaper electronically.