Guest Column: Missourian must find new business model
Published Sept. 11, 2008
Broad discussion has occurred - in the press, among MU faculty and students, among MU administrators and among journalism alumni - about the current financial challenge facing the Missourian. Since this discussion will continue for some time, I thought it might be useful if I outlined my perspective as MU provost.
I think we can all agree on the basics. The Columbia Missourian is an extraordinary resource for the School of Journalism as a "lab" for teaching and research in the world-prominent journalism program. This point is doubly important given the extraordinary role of quality journalism in supporting democracy in today's volatile world and given the fiscal challenges facing newspapers worldwide today.
In recognition of this critical importance, MU, through the journalism school budget, supports the newsroom faculty and staff at more than $3 million per year. In addition, MU has long supported the Missourian business enterprise substantially.
In the last few years, however, the amount of support needed for the business operation has grown by a factor of three or four and has become difficult for the university to cover financially, especially given the broader financial stresses that the university now faces.
In light of these issues, I, along with members of the journalism administration, have initiated discussions about how we can help the Missourian business enterprise become more fiscally viable. On Wednesday, there was substantial, thoughtful discussion with the Missourian's board about these issues.
There are no straightforward answers, and there is not yet broad agreement on how to proceed.
A number of ideas have emerged. One that has received considerable discussion and press coverage involves collaboration with the Columbia Daily Tribune, combining business functions but keeping editorial control at the Missourian and Vox magazine. This discussion has given rise to the possibility of inviting competitive bids from a number of publishing companies for such collaboration.
The future of the Saturday issue (delivered to 40,000 homes) has been discussed, as has the question of whether the Missourian could become a five-day paper. A much stronger focus on digital publication has been discussed, even the possibility of going mostly digital with fewer paper products.
All of these and other ideas are on the table, being considered separately and in various combinations. We certainly welcome new ideas as the discussion continues.
The most important point in all of this is that the Missourian newsroom is under no threat. The question concerns what kind of business will be involved - paper and digital or mostly digital, free or paid subscription, seven-day home delivery or controlled circulation?
These are the same questions that just about every newspaper in the world is dealing with. We are searching for a successful business model and we must find a way to limit the amount of support that the university provides. We recognize there is no magic number, that several hundred thousand dollars is a reasonable amount, but that at some point the amount of university support becomes unfeasible for the university to continue.
I and others at MU are committed to finding an effective way to sustain the Missourian as the incredible asset that it now is for the School of Journalism and the university. The discussions will continue until a good solution is found.