How Can LSU Student Media

Become a Mobile Leader?

Steve Buttry
September 11, 2016
LSU Student Media must blaze a new trail in serving our community on the media
students use to connect constantly to the world: mobile devices.
Our current practice of devoting most of our students time to producing traditional
media does not serve the students who support Student Media with their fees. This
current practice does not serve the student workers we are preparing for professional
careers in a marketplace that is shifting swiftly to mobile media and startup culture. And
the current practice is financially unsustainable. While we certainly have been changing
and may even be growing weary of change, we need to change much faster.
The Manship School of Mass Communication and Student Media pride ourselves on our
leadership, excellence and innovation. But we need to accelerate our mobile exploration
and experimentation or we will fall short on all three counts.
Developing our mobile products and capabilities also will help us reach the broader
audience of LSU alumni, sports fans and supporters who might be attractive to
advertisers as well as potential employers for our students and graduates and donors to
support our continuing efforts.
To achieve this, I propose that LSU Student Media, in cooperation with (and with some
financial support from) the Manship School, undertake the following:
1. Take at least two steps this fall semester, beyond those already in the works, to
strengthen the mobile mojo of Student Media products.
2. Start planning for at least three more mobile developments for the spring
semester of 2017.
3. Start planning to cut the printing schedule of The Daily Reveille from its current
five days a week to two days a week, starting in the spring semester.
I will elaborate first on the mobile opportunities, then on the Reveille publication
schedule.

Mobile opportunities
We should start work right away on turning Student Media into a mobile media
laboratory, where our students experiment and develop products, serve our mobile
community and provide important experience for students. As a money-losing operation,
we have little money ourselves to invest in some of the operations I will describe here.
But we think some of these ideas will be likely money-makers, so we should pursue
them (and invest some of the profits, if we are successful, in other mobile products).

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The Manship School will benefit from some of these projects and might cover or share
the start-up costs. In other cases, we will seek grants to fund major costs (and might not
be able to pursue the projects until we get such grants).
Three efforts that will elevate our mobile performance are already in the works:
Student Media reorganization. We made an important step this fall by unifying the
newsrooms of The Daily Reveille, LSUNow.com and Tiger TV, on the joint
recommendation of their student leaders. The unified newsroom is off to a good start.
We need to consider what our next organizational steps are: How do we better integrate
the KLSU news, sports and web functions into this operation, while maintaining strong
station operation and the distinct KLSU music programming? We also are in our second
year of partnering with a sales class in the College of Business. Do we need to deepen
our partnership there and/or work more closely with the Manship digital advertising
faculty and classes? Would a partnership with the digital media arts and engineering
programs at the Center for Computation & Technology help our mobile efforts?
Sports on the Geaux. Our new Sports on the Geaux newsletter launched Sept. 2. Most
people read email on their phones, so this gives us a mobile-focused product. While
email newsletters tend to be a product used more by professionals than students, they
also are attractive advertising vehicles, so this should help support other products that
are more student-focused. Costs are minimal, and the first few ads should turn this into
a moneymaker. (And, if you havent subscribed to Sports on the Geaux yet, you can do
so quickly at that link.)
Friends2Follow. We are one of the first 10 student media operations to use
Friends2Follow, a service that gives us a tool to help businesses that have shifted their
efforts away from advertising, seeking to connect with the public instead through social
media. Our response is that we can help them build their student following and
engagement on social media. Friends2Follow is a widget on LSUNow.com that feeds
the advertisers social media posts into our website and provides the advertiser socialmedia access to our audience with engagement metrics, such as how many students
followed, shared, liked, etc. their posts and accounts. We already have our first
Friends2Follow customer and have provided more than 100,000 views for the
advertisers social media posts.
Other mobile possibilities to consider for this fall and beyond:
Real-time metrics. We ask the Manship School to pay for a metrics service such as
Chartbeat to provide real-time analysis of our contents performance on the web and
social media. Professional media such as the Washington Post and Gannett newsrooms
show their staffs this information on flat-screen TVs in the newsrooms, enabling such
refinements as improving headlines, stepping up social promotion of stories and
producing more engaging content. We already have one largely unused TV in the
newsroom and can move others to other rooms to achieve this quickly this fall. Manship
also might be interested in sending an adviser and a few students to observe how

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professional newsrooms use the metrics to make better decisions about news
coverage. This service could be useful to Manship as well in multiple classes, including
perhaps a special-topics class focusing on digital analytics.
Mobile project. The LSU bowl game and/or SEC championship and/or national playoffs
(if the Tigers rebound from the Lambeau disappointment) have potential to take tens of
thousands of LSU fans, including students, to distant locations such as Atlanta (SEC
championship and one semifinal site), Phoenix (the other semifinal, if we still have a
shot at the playoffs) and Tampa (national championship game). And who knows where
the bowl game might be if we dont make the playoffs? As I blogged in 2010, such an
event presents a terrific opportunity for mobile engagement and commerce. Fans will be
enjoying a distant city with their phones handy, and we need to plan ways to provide
mobile-friendly content, engage students and fans in sharing their experiences with us
and hire sponsors interested in reaching that audience.
Greater use of the SMAC Lab. Student Media staffers were early users of the Social
Media Analysis and Creation Lab, but we have barely started exploring the possibilities
there. We need to consider ways to use the SMAC Lab better for routine coverage as
well as for special events. At the least, we probably need to get some Student Media
students well-trained in Crimson Hexagon, so they can do quick analysis and creation
on social media reaction to big news events. The summer shootings and floods would
be huge examples, but every Tiger game would work as well, and probably political
stories and big campus news such as any changes to TOPS or saving TOPS from cuts.
The Manship Schools participation in the national Electionland project will give more
students a glimpse of the possibilities of the SMAC Lab.
Augmented reality. Using Knight Grant money under the Social Media News
Challenge, we acquired software to use the Layar augmented-reality app to allow users
to launch videos when they scan coded photographs. For instance, two photographs in
the 2016 Gumbo will launch related Humans of LSU videos. We should explore the
training and workflow required to make AR video a routine experience in Gumbo,
Legacy and Reveille stories.
Mobile video. The Manship School and Tiger TV have mastered the teaching of video
skills for the traditional TV screen. We should become leaders in shooting and editing
video for social media and small screens. This opportunity raises a series of questions
we should address: Do we need a Tiger Mobile editing team that edits the TV stories we
normally shoot for the smaller screen (and sometimes vertical) and the shorter videos
that social media reward and sometimes require? Do we need to choose which
assignments should be shot primarily for social? Do video journalists need to produce
two stories from most assignments, one for Tiger TV and one for mobile/social? What
other factors should we consider in adapting our video resources to the mobile/social
opportunities? How should we be using Facebook Live, Periscope and other live-video
tools that might reach larger or different audiences than we reach through using
Livestream on our website? How should we address the advertising sales and
production opportunities that mobile video presents?

We could choose from many more ideas to pursue for next semester and beyond:
We could include a mobile-editor position in the Student Media leadership.
We could partner with CCT engineering students to bring some mobile
developers onto the Student Media staff to develop news apps or games.
We could bring in speakers and/or host events focused on mobile issues and
providing mobile training.
We could explore the possibilities of virtual-reality production more aggressively.
We could recruit alumni with mobile experience and insight to mentor our
students.
We could develop a commercial product using social media to offer students
deals at LSU-area businesses.
We could expand KLSUs use of podcasts.
We should watch for conferences and seminars that will teach mobile skills and
strategy to students and faculty.
What else? This is just a starter list of possibilities. I welcome direct suggestions and
well probably schedule a meeting soon to brainstorm mobile opportunities and set
some priorities. Please tell me (stephenbuttry@gmail.com) if youd like to be notified of
plans for the meeting.

How Often Should We Print The Reveille?

At universities across the country, the professionals and students running student media
are concluding that a daily student newspaper is not a sustainable product.
We should shift student time and energy from The Daily Reveille into these mobile
opportunities because thats the best way to serve our student community. We should
shift because that will better prepare students for the media careers that lie ahead for
them. But if those more important reasons didnt exist, we still would need to address an
urgent choice to either cut how many days a week we publish The Daily Reveille or find
significant new funding sources for the newspaper. Financial details will be in the next
section of this report. This section will focus on lessons we can learn from other student
newspapers.
The leaders of student newspapers that have cut back from daily print frequency agree
overwhelmingly that it was a good or excellent move. Most student newspapers that
continue to publish daily have declining advertising revenue. At daily student
newspapers where managers arent considering a reduction in print frequency, the
newspaper in nearly all cases is subsidized heavily by donations, student fees and/or
deep reserves beyond what we have at LSU.
Those are the clear results from two surveys of more than 50 current and former
leaders of student media operations, including all 11 relevant Southeastern Conference

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schools. Most of the universities responding to the surveys, like LSU, have more than
30,000 in total enrollment.

Rare is a survey that gets completely one-sided responses to any question. But no one
gave a negative response when 28 administration, faculty and student leaders of
student media operations that had cut the frequency of their newspapers assessed how
reducing print frequency had affected their student media operations. Only two
respondents gave even neutral answers (one of the neutral answers actually turned
from a money-loser to profitable; the problems that resulted in the neutral answer were
operational). Seven leaders responded that cutting print frequency was an excellent
move and 19 said it was good. In personal or email discussions, two more leaders who
didnt take the survey said cutting print frequency helped their operations.
Student newspapers that cut back from daily production find that they improve their
digital performance both editorially and financially.
As we have considered a reduction in print frequency at LSU, a question that has been
raised is how we would make up the loss in print revenue. That answer comes quickly
and clearly from the newspapers that have already made the move: If you lose at all,
the savings in expenses cover any loss in ad revenue. Some operations even grow print
advertising revenue. And most grow revenue from other sources, such as digital media
and new products. You simply come out ahead financially.
I also surveyed 24 leaders of student media operations with daily newspapers. Two had
already decided to cut to two days a week this fall, one is cutting from five days to four
and seven others are considering cuts. Most who werent considering reducing print
frequency said they were losing money on operations but can remain daily because of
heavy subsidies from student fees, reserves or donations.
In the professional newspaper business, it remains an article of faith that print
advertising still pays the bills (though newspaper jobs are plummeting because ad
revenues cant pay the bills that they used to). But professional newspapers serve an

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audience whose median age is older than the parents of most LSU students. Nielsen
Scarborough research cited in the Pew Research Centers State of the Media Report
2016 says only 16 percent of people age 18 to 24 read daily newspapers. Reflecting
advertiser awareness of declining print readership, student dailies everywhere are
struggling to sell newspaper ads.
The Daily Reveille has lost money eight of the past 12 years, being subsidized by cash
reserves that have dwindled to dangerously low levels. Whether you look at the data
from student media operations that have cut print days or those remaining daily, the
notion that LSU needs to worry about making up for a loss in ad revenue if we cut print
revenue is outdated. The truth is that you need to make up the loss in print ad revenue if
you remain daily.
Of 23 daily student newspapers whose executives answered a question about how they
were doing financially, 21 reported declining print ad revenues and 15 reported that they
were losing money on operations. So LSUs falling ad sales are not an isolated situation
that we can fix by just doing better. Our grim situation is shared with most student
dailies. Declining ad revenue is a problem whether you cut print frequency or not.

Heres the full wording of the red option, which did not show in full on the graphic: We are losing money
on operations but student fees, subsidies and/or reserves allow us to continue operating this way for the
foreseeable future. 47.8%

Consolidating most, if not all, existing advertiser support into one or two days a week
was not a problem when student newspapers cut advertising days. Four student
newspapers, including one that didnt fill out the questionnaire but responded by email
and personally, actually reported increases in print revenue after dropping print days,
because they succeeded in selling advertisers on the papers change in format and
longer availability on newsstands. Most report that cost savings offset any decline in
print ad revenues. Keep in mind that those revenues were declining daily, too, so the
saving is related directly to cutting print days, but the ad decline is not.

The slide above is from a presentation by Jon Schlitt, chief financial officer of the Daily
Kansan, which cut in the 2015-16 academic year from four print days per week to two.
Schlitt, who did not answer the online questionnaire, spoke at the Future of Student
Media Summit at Ohio University in April. He said the biggest mistake the Kansan made
was moving too slowly. The newspaper took two years planning the move.
Schlitt said his students increased focus on digital produced measureable results that
he doubts would have happened if the staff had remained focused on daily print
production:
40 percent increase in overall traffic at Kansan.com.
364 percent increase in traffic from the 18-24 demographic.
10 percent growth in Facebook likes.
11 percent growth in Twitter followers.
One student media executive whose newspaper reduced print days last fall wrote:
It did a world of good for our finances, and I'm happy to report ad sales didn't
drop.
A student media director offered this advice to a newspaper considering dropping print
days:
Be honest. If almost the same number of papers are sitting untouched in the
racks on the day you replace them with a new edition, it's obvious there is little
demand from readers for the printed format. Universities should be reflective of
progressive thinking and offer students contemporary and forward-thinking
experiences, not remain anchored to past practices for the sake of nostalgia or
squeezing the last dimes from a declining revenue source.

One student editor succinctly advised:

Do it. It's a waste of time to spend nights putting out a print product instead of
innovating digitally.
An appendix presents the full results of the survey of more than 50 student media
leaders around the country.

The Daily Reveilles situation

By any measure, LSU Student Medias situation is serious:
Print advertising revenue is plummeting. Reveille ad sales have fallen four
straight years. Ad revenue in 2015 was less than half what it was just three
years earlier.
Even in good years, ad revenue didnt cover Reveille operating costs. Student
fees made the Reveille profitable back when it was.
Even counting revenue from student fees, The Daily Reveille has lost money
eight of the past 12 fiscal years, including 2016. Its most recent profit was a
mere $5,815 positive balance in 2012. In 2014, 15 and 16, Reveille deficits
exceeded $100,000.
The number of newspapers picked up daily is declining. We cut the press run
from 10,000 to 8,000 in 2015, but most days about 4,000 copies are actually
picked up. Were cutting the usual press run this fall to 6,000.
Student fees heavily subsidize The Daily Reveille. We dont yet know the full
impact we will feel from this years drop in enrollment, but it will be substantial.
And if the scheduled cut in TOPS for the spring semester results in further
enrollment losses, Student Media could take a severe financial hit.
On-campus advertising is an important revenue source for the Reveille, making
the newspaper particularly vulnerable if the states and universitys financial
crisis forces cuts in departments that advertise (as has happened at other
universities facing financial difficulties).
Though finances are the most urgent reason to reduce print frequency, we have more
important reasons to do so: to serve our community better using mobile media and to
give our students the digital skills and experience the job marketplace demands. Those
digital issues are matters of opinion, and we could spend a few more years arguing over
those opinions if the financial situation were different. But the financial situation is a
matter of fact and we need to make changes soon or LSU Student Media will have no
further reserves to cover continuing losses.

Options for LSU Student Media

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We need to make some decisions this semester about the future of The Daily Reveille.
Here are some options:
Decrease print frequency in the spring semester of 2017. If we are going to act in
the spring, we should try to decide by the middle of October, if not sooner, to allow some
time for planning the change. I propose cutting to twice a week in the spring, so we
realize significant savings in printing and distribution costs and accelerate a significant
shift in workflow toward the mobile initiatives described in this report. This option would
have the advantage of making swiftly a move that has paid off for other student
newspapers, realizing as quickly as we can the benefits of the change. This option
would require some swift planning and execution, which would be taxing but also would
be valuable experience for students entering a world where swift action and nimble
adjustment are rewarded. We cant know the exact savings until we make other
decisions, such as the minimum size of the two remaining papers and how we handle
print publication on holidays and after breaks. But printing and distributing two 12-page
papers a week, rather than five eight-page papers, for a press run of 6,000 would save
us roughly $30,000 for the spring and fall semesters. This is the choice I strongly
recommend.
Decrease print frequency to one day per week. Obviously, this move would increase
our savings in printing and distribution costs (though, again, to calculate the savings,
you would first need to decide the size of the we weekly paper). The survey found that
student newspapers that cut their frequency to once a week are glad that they did.
Advertisers are pleased with the weekly product. The newspapers are performing better
financially and the students are serving their communities better on digital platforms. Its
notable that some newspapers that cut initially to two or three times per week have cut
back to weekly after a year or two.
Decrease print frequency in the fall semester of 2017. Delaying a cut in print
frequency until next fall would have the advantage of allowing more time to plan the
move and more time for public discussion of the situation and these options. On the
other hand, current seniors (both Student Media consumers and staff members) would
not have as much of the benefit of the improved mobile products and experiences.
Producing a daily newspaper requires considerable student time and focus, and we
would not be able to move as swiftly as we should on the mobile opportunities. We also
would absorb the costs of another full year of daily print production and distribution,
probably drawing further on our perilously low reserves, especially if we take a severe
hit on student fees in the spring.
Decrease frequency to just three days a week instead of one or two. When I
shared a draft of this report with student leaders and staff in the Office of Student Media,
this was the most common reaction. I have added this option to the report because I
value the opinions of those who suggested it and think we should discuss or consider
their suggestion. It feels logical to consider a compromise, rather than making the
sudden move to just two days. But heres why I dont recommend this move: As noted
above, multiple student newspapers that cut to three or even two days learned quickly

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that they had not cut enough and cut their frequency again. I think wed be better off
making just one wrenching change, rather than facing the same print-focused decision
again in a year or two. Also, cutting to just three days of print publication would not do
enough to achieve either of the goals of such a move: freeing student time and focus to
pursue mobile opportunities and cutting the costs of printing and distribution.
Find new university sources of revenue for Student Media. It would be irresponsible
for Student Media to wait until our reserves are exhausted to cut print frequency. If we
are not willing to make cut our print editions, we need to explore options for more
funding. I frankly dont see much promise for more funding from the university, whether
that would come from student fees or funds available from the Manship School, Student
Life, the Chancellors Office or somewhere else. This seems like the worst possible time
to be seeking increased student-fee support. But if someone knows of funds we might
be able to tap, or if someone with good experience in the ways of LSU finance would
like to lead the way, this might be one way to sustain daily print publication, at least for
the short term.
Raise money to keep The Reveille daily. Daily newspapers with significant donation
revenues are rare. But a couple that I found are able to stay daily through the generosity
of supporters. The Daily Tar Heel at the University of North Carolina cut from five days a
week to four this fall, and is making an appeal for donations to help it avoid further cuts.
Seeking donations from students would be trickier at LSU because of our student-fee
support (the Tar Heel is independent and does not receive student fees). A general fund
drive of small donations would probably not raise enough money. We would need at
least one huge donation to make a significant difference, perhaps a large donation as a
base, with a match to other donations. Again, I am doubtful this will be a promising or
sustainable path. I think if we are going to commit to this course, we probably would
need a donor to emerge almost right away.
Cut expenses. We have made significant steps in the 2016 and 2017 budget years to
cut expenses. We have reduced our costs for advisers by not filling one vacancy and by
shifting the workload between Student Media and the Manship School for another
adviser position. We have reduced the size of the daily newspaper and the press run.
We have reduced student payroll. An effort to seek a donation of printing services was
unsuccessful. We could cut further. We could cut student payroll further and use more
content from Manship School classes and/or operate more (or entirely) on content from
student volunteers, as some student newspapers do. A company that outsources many
of the business and administrative functions of student media operations wants our
business. I favor using more content from classes as a way to provide more content, but
I dont favor significant cuts in student payroll or further staff cuts. The most promising
way to cut costs is by reducing printing and distribution costs by cutting the Reveille to
two editions per week
What else? The Office of Student Media welcomes other suggestions from students,
faculty, alumni, administrators, media professionals and other groups interested in the

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future of The Daily Reveille and other Student Media products. Solutions should seek
ways to improve our digital performance and our financial performance.

Public discussion
Before making this decision, we need feedback from students, faculty and
administrators in Student Media, the Manship School and LSU at large. We want
feedback from the Reveille staff. We want alumni feedback and support. We want
feedback from the Student Media Board, which represents important constituencies. We
will distribute this report widely. We encourage you to give your feedback now to Steve
Buttry to me directly by email (stevebuttry@lsu.edu), phone (office is 225-578-6693, but
I recommend calling my cell, 703-474-0382) or in person (Hodges B39). I have
chemotherapy, classes and two conferences in the coming days, so please be patient if
I take a while to respond. Dean Jerry Ceppos (jceppos@lsu.edu or 225 578 9294) also
is interested in your feedback. We encourage responding soon, because we may be
making some basic decisions soon.
In addition to the obvious issues such as print frequency, think about what additional
tools the Reveille needs to operate in the new media environment. Think, too, about
what skills todays Reveille students will need in the new media atmosphere and how
we can help them hone the outstanding skills they have now. Think about how students
can lead the transition to the future.
Feel free to call friends at the dozens of universities that already have faced the same
tough decisions. Southeastern Conference schools whose student newspapers have
recently cut print editions are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, South
Carolina, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. Other student newspapers that have shifted away
from daily print production include Wisconsin, Maryland, Oregon, Kansas, Nebraska,
Arizona State, Illinois, Michigan State, Oklahoma and Utah. Of course, numerous
stories have been written about the pressures facing college newspapers. Among the
most recent good pieces are a Poynter summary and a thoughtful piece about the issue
at the University of North Carolinas Daily Tar Heel.
We invite all interested parties to join us for a public discussion in the Holliday Forum of
the Journalism Building at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27. But we urge you to give us your
thoughts now.

Conclusion
We face important mobile opportunities and a financial crisis in a beloved traditional
product. Continuing the status quo simply is not responsible or acceptable. We should
commit to an aggressive plan to become a leader in producing and teaching mobile
media. And we should commit this fall to cutting the print editions of The Daily Reveille.
If we dont reduce The Reveilles print publication schedule, we need a strong plan to
find new revenue sources.

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