Plan

Action plan for student media at IU

This action plan responds to the April 2024 committee report titled “Proposal for Reimaging and Reinvesting in Student Media at IU.” That report was commissioned by Media School Dean David Tolchinsky, who appointed an ad hoc committee of students, staff, faculty and alumni. Subsequent review and conversations involving the Dean’s office and the office of the Provost have led to the adoption of this strategy. Central to the plan is the creation of a converged media umbrella organization that will maintain legacy brands but realize efficiencies through shared business operations and increased potential for multiplatform revenue generation. Current staffing levels will be maintained, with positions gradually adjusted to address the needs of all three flagship student media organizations. Through this intervention, The Media School will maintain and enhance IU’s historic commitment to student media experiences while working gradually to eliminate the annual budget shortfalls associated with the operations of the Indiana Daily Student and to begin providing equitable degrees of financial support to WIUX Student Radio and IUSTV.

This plan envisions a modern, multiplatform learning lab experience that includes multiple brands and creates opportunities for innovation, supported by a shared business operation that provides long-term sustainability for all student media outlets on campus. The structure will reflect the industry conditions students are most likely to encounter when they seek employment beyond IU. While the legacy organizations will continue editorially independent operations and maintain distinct brands, students in the converged operation will be encouraged to gain experience across platforms, and student media organizations will be better positioned to pursue collaborative projects. Cross-promotion of content and the launch of new, converged media channels (such as a new combined student media app and a community-focused converged newsletter) will increase the potential for building audience and unlocking new streams of advertising revenue, and shared professional staff will provide efficiencies in business operations. This vision provides for both continued support of the Indiana Daily Student and a means of beginning to provide equitable support to the school’s audio- and video-based student media groups.

In creating this umbrella student operation, The Media School has attempted to balance a number of key priorities while ensuring the new organization will align with campus requirements for budget neutrality. Those priorities, all of which reflect demands on limited resources, include:

Reducing and ultimately eliminating the IDS operating deficit.
Maintaining existing professional staff positions devoted to student media.
Maintaining IU’s distinct student media brands. This includes preserving key operational aspects of each media organization, such as the IDS print product, which provides critical learning experiences for student media workers.
Creating equity in student support across all three media organizations.
Increasing revenues through converged digital operations to create opportunities for all three organizations to grow together in the year ahead.

To achieve initial deficit decreases, we will take two immediate steps:

First, there will be a strategic reduction in the IDS print edition beginning in the spring semester of 2025. While the weekly edition will be suspended, we will maintain plans for existing special editions regularly published during the academic year. Preserving these high-revenue issues will yield a net savings (print expense reduction will outweigh lost revenue from weekly editions) and will enable student media to continue to provide numerous and substantial opportunities for students to learn and practice essential design and other skills associated with the print operation.
Second, while there will be no staff cuts, we will transfer one professional staff position – a dedicated IT specialist – from the IDS budget to The Media School, where the position will provide school-wide support but will also have a primary emphasis on serving the new combined student media operation.

Simultaneous with the implementation of these changes, we will move to begin building revenue-generating capacity that has not existed for WIUX or IUSTV and that has been greatly diminished over the last few years at the IDS. For instance, the student sales staff was disbanded in 2019 and should be reconstituted in a more robust way and expanded to match the scope and cross-platform advertising opportunities that the new converged organization will present.

Implementation of this plan is to begin immediately. By the start of year two, we hope to begin realizing revenue increases from the initiatives discussed below such that all of the school’s student media organizations will ultimately be positioned to grow and expand their activities. Further, the plan includes a variety of additive support measures for student media, including the dedication of several existing Media School graduate student lines to provide staffing support and the development of workshops and courses focused on student mental health considerations.

Under this plan, the school and campus are committed to the following new and continuing means of financial support for student media at IU:

A commitment to continue covering the IDS deficit while this plan works to gradually decrease it to zero (this is in addition to the forgiveness of $1 million in accumulated debt for the last several years of the IDS operation). In keeping with university rules for auxiliary organizations, the goal is for the student media operation to be revenue neutral by year three of the plan, with continuing support to be provided by The Media School as needed depending on revenue development in years four and five.
Continued dedication of tuition funds to student media credit hours that support student news outlets.
Continued coverage of a portion of salary and benefits for the director of student media.
Ongoing provision of facility and IT support, including the new assumption of the expense of one current IDS professional staff member.
New funding for multiple graduate student positions (at an annual cost of roughly $50,000 each) to provide staff support for the converged student media organization.
A commitment to cover the initial costs of developing and launching a converged student media app in the 2024/2025 academic year.
The creation and funding of various initiatives to address safety and mental health of student journalists, including annual workshops on self-care and trauma reporting, a general education course on issues of mental health and the media, and an upper-level course devoted to trauma-informed reporting. The Media School will support development of these courses with summer funding for faculty.

Additional efforts aimed at enhancing revenue generation are addressed below.

Further, the plan calls for the creation of two advisory bodies to support student media, one internal and one external. A Student Media Advisory Board comprising select Media School faculty and staff will advise in the creation and operation of the converged organization, helping guide the transition and promote a collaborative environment in which all the individual organizations and students to thrive. And a new Dean’s Council for Student Media will be constituted with the aim of advising student media organizations on best contemporary industry practices. This council will establish an annual process to meet with student media leaders and evaluate pitches for innovative new operational ideas that could result in additional budget commitments.

Timeline and financial impacts

This is an initial timeline for the transition to the new student media operation, including potential deficit impacts. It is important to emphasize that these dollar figures are estimates based on the best financial data available, and that the estimates could be revised based on changes in revenues.

Year 1 (FY25): IDS annual deficit reduced from approximately $300k to $215k

Realize immediate cost savings while launching several new initiatives to maximize the learning lab experience as part of a converged student media model. Temporarily maintain current business operations of IDS, IUSTV, and WIUX while working committee determines structure of the combined operation.

Cost Reductions ($85k in current year given anticipated timing, $145k/year savings in future years):

Centralize IT support – Transition dedicated IT role from the IDS to the Media School, filling an open position. Focus will move from IDS only to general school support, with a functional emphasis on all student media outlets. Additional IT support for student media has been offered by the College of Arts and Sciences.
Minimize print costs – Reduce the print schedule, transitioning from a weekly print schedule to special editions only beginning in the spring semester 2025.

Year 2 (FY26): IDS annual deficit reduced from approximately $215k to $155k

Implement the new student media structure with anticipated revenue potential from converged operational initiatives such as a new mobile app.

Additive Measures:

Expand audience and reach – Launch a mobile app for all converged outlets and a targeted newsletter or newsletters drawing on converged student media content.
Foster graduate connections – Redirect 2-3 existing graduate SAA lines to support student media, offering additional staffing support for the outlets while also providing new and relevant professional experience for our graduate students.

Year 3 (FY27): IDS annual deficit reduced to/near $0

Assess the success of the above initiatives with a goal of reducing the deficit to or near zero by year 5. Our hope is that, with an expanded audience and revenue opportunities in new areas (WIUX, IUSTV), student media will be positioned to grow by 2029 and further cost reductions will not be necessary.

Years 4-5 (FY28-29): IDS annual deficit reduced to $0 if not already achieved

These are “buffer” years. If we have not reached budget-neutrality by the end of fiscal year 2027, we will extend our timeline by up to two years.

How this plan addresses the recommendations of the ad hoc student media committee
Recommendation	Action
Organize student media under single umbrella	Appoint committee to begin implementing in year 1. New organization will provide for a unified business office, cross-platform advertising sales, and unified recruitment, among other things
Add new personnel to support student media	Commitment to dedicate graduate student workers (2-3 positions at $50,000 each) to assist in managing expanded business operations in spring semester of year one. Shift in IT position will support converged media operations. Potential for further staff increases contingent on revenue growth.
Restore/increase internal IU advertising expenditures	University administration has committed to resuming/increasing internal advertising purchases in the IDS initially and in the converged student media operation. Further growth in this area is expected based on the ability to develop and measure audience through converged operations, particularly the launch of a multiplatform app.
Reduce/eliminate campus space taxes	Media School will continue to pay space taxes for all three student media entities; auxiliary tax charged to IDS remains for now, with School exploring possible reduction with campus leadership
Increase student fees to fund student media	Mandatory fee not feasible given campus efforts to reduce fees, but School exploring potential for opt-in fee/donation, which has yielded good results at other schools
Create consolidated student media app	Identify vendor to design and develop in year one. Media School will foot initial costs.
Consider discontinuing the Arbutus yearbook (as recommended by the ad hoc committee) to allow for redirection of staff resources to manage combined business operations.	This decision will be left to student media leadership in consultation with staff and Student Media Advisory Board.
Approve a plan to protect student journalists against threats to their physical and emotional safety	Charge committee of faculty, staff, students and alumni with creating a protocol in year one to provide ongoing support for student news organizations
Develop one-day annual self-care and trauma reporting workshop	Charge committee with organizing inaugural event in spring semester of year one
Develop lessons to be taught in Story Lab I and Story Lab II courses	Charge faculty committee with developing these plans in year one
Develop 200-level general education Media and Mental Health course	Solicit proposals from faculty to develop this course in summer 2025 with funding support from Media School
Develop 400-level seminar on trauma-informed reporting	Solicit proposals from faculty to develop this course in summer 2025 with funding support from Media School

Several additional items mentioned in the report include partnering with an outside vendor on a housing website, selling branded merchandise, launching a digital faculty/staff newsletter, and producing a student newsletter to be received by all students. These remain as possibilities that the advisory committees can continue to explore with Media School and campus leadership as the new converged operation takes shape.

Conclusion

In formulating this plan, Media School leadership have worked to ground it in a strong pedagogical approach to experiential learning that balances the need for updated practices with the desire to preserve and sustain important student media institutions. Importantly, the plan also preserves editorial independence of our student newsrooms while creating the infrastructure for them to survive and thrive financially.

We recognize that aspects of this plan, in particular the further reduction of the IDS print schedule, are likely to cause some distress. However, as noted above, we are committed to continuing the opportunity for students to learn the essential skills of print production through the publication of special editions. And we emphasize a view of this plan as a living document. That is, we anticipate a successful implementation of the converged media operation will ultimately create opportunities for student media to tap into new revenues and pursue innovative initiatives. That could, for instance, involve the creation of reimagined print products or a move to over-the-air broadcasts that would provide expanded sites of learning for student media workers. This plan reflects a more intentional and strategic use of Media School resources to support student media and make such endeavors possible far into the future. We look forward to working with students, staff, faculty and alumni to move forward on these ambitious goals.