IDS to print only two days, expand digital
— Indiana Daily Student Press Release:
The Indiana Daily Student, the student-produced newspaper at Indiana University Bloomington, is adjusting its print schedule to twice-weekly editions while expanding its digital coverage.
Starting with the fall 2017 semester, instead of weekday editions, the newspaper will offer print editions on Mondays and Thursdays, while continuing round-the-clock news at idsnews.com, on Twitter @idsnews and on Facebook and other social media.
Industry trends are driving the changes, said Ron Johnson, director of IU Student Media.
“While we continue to serve readers and advertisers in print, we have grown and expanded our digital coverage,” Johnson said. “Our student journalists produce great content, and our goal is to keep evolving to get content where readers and advertisers need it.”
Founded 150 years ago, the Indiana Daily Student is produced by IU students for IU students, with a readership that includes faculty, staff, alumni, parents and Hoosier fans. Student editors produce and control all content. The student staff is open to all majors, including those in the IU Media School, also in Franklin Hall. Besides the IDS, IU Student Media includes the Arbutus yearbook and Inside magazine, published four times per academic year.
Through the years, the IDS has evolved from a student club to a faculty-managed publication to today’s independent collegiate newspaper. It was one of the first collegiate dailies to go online, and now it offers broad content across its website, Twitter and Facebook.
Current IDS editors are redesigning idsnews.com, and they are already planning approaches to serve readers through the twice-weekly print editions, Johnson said, with news, features, sports and advertising that will continue to reach thousands of readers. Like the summer IDS, which publishes twice weekly, the print editions will still be available across the Bloomington campus and throughout the city and county.
Meanwhile, idsnews.com and @idsnews serve thousands of readers with breaking news, live reporting, long-form stories, sports, entertainment, commentary and advertising — a full range of content that will continue to expand. Also continuing will be the IDS special publications on student housing, Big 10 sports, IU basketball and the Little 500, as well as publications that serve incoming students and parents, international students, and campus visitors.
Both commercial and collegiate newspapers are adapting to reader and advertiser trends, Johnson said. A number have already adjusted their print schedules, he said, and more collegiate dailies will do the same.
Despite the changes, the IDS, Arbutus and Inside will continue to offer students the training and hands-on experience they need to excel, Johnson said.
Media School Dean James Shanahan said the school supports the continued efforts of the IDS to keep pace with industry trends and standards while continuing to offer students valuable experience as staff members of a daily news organization.
“The Media School, the IDS and all sectors of the media industry face a challenge to find and re-find their audiences,” Shanahan said. “Today, students need to be experienced not only with the traditional principles of writing, reporting and editing, but also with the rapidly changing business structures of news and its digital distribution. This move will set the IDS on the path to solving those challenges.”
One of the nation’s most honored collegiate newspapers, the Daily Student has earned 21 Pacemaker Awards from Associated Collegiate Press and 28 Gold Crowns from Columbia Scholastic Press Association.
Its students have won hundreds of individual honors in state and national competitions. In partnership with the IU Media School, IU journalism students have won five national titles and two second places in the last seven years of the William Randolph Hearst Writing Contest — an unrivaled track record.
The awards are appreciated, Johnson said. But more important are the news and information that IDS students produce.
“Now, more than ever, we need strong journalists,” Johnson said. “Our students take that experience to careers in journalism at news organizations large and small. They work in communication, advertising and marketing, even law and medicine, and they do so across a variety of platforms.”
The newspaper’s 150th birthday was Feb. 22, and what started as the Indiana Student in 1867 and has grown into an IU tradition. Alumni and friends will gather Oct. 7 to celebrate the anniversary, and they are contributing to the Indiana Daily Student Legacy Fund, which will support the student journalists who follow in their footsteps.
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