Thursday, December 1, 2011

Red and Black

The student run newspaper. It used to be printed everyday. And I used to do the crosswords, at least I would attempt.

But the printed word is dying. And with it the Red and Black. Now its only published on Thursdays. I don't even look at it anymore. I couldn't tell you what the cover picture was for any story this entire year, not a single one. In fact, last night, at the HSBT meeting half the room actually thought that they had gone out of print. And even once they found out it was still in print, the once a day stipulation was kind ofa turn off. Part of me thinks that they realized how little influence the paper had anymore that it wouldn't be worth it at all to spend money on something people didn't know even existed.

Even at the beginning of the year I wondered why they would stop printing daily. I predicted it. I knew that the lack of repetition would only lead to lack of awareness. I understand that their budget has probably been cut but, I think they hurt themselves in the long run. Now on one picks it up and they are still wasting money.

If it was me... I would have maybe cut the print days down to every other day. I never really read the paper, I only did the crosswords but, maybe it would be beneficial to find out what people actually read and then only write those kinds of pieces. And they should probably attempt to come across funds in a different way. I don't really know how they are run and where their budget comes from now but, I think something creative might help. Also, we talked about this in PR but, if the company has a good reputation, they are more likely to survive a crisis without so much as a blemish to their good name. The Red and Black was definitely not able to do that with the reputation that they had before people thought they were extinct.

I have faith in my fellow Grady students but, I feel like they've just stopped trying as far as this paper goes.

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