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HBCU Student Editors Describe Challenges

By Mike McCray
Black College Wire

The 10th annual HBCU National Newspaper Conference was an opportunity for student journalists from newspapers around the country to come together in Baltimore to compete for awards and discuss the problems they are experiencing at black college newspaper today.

bccanews.org

Much like the professional newspaper industry, collegiate newspapers face problems with money, censorship and convergence but at historically black colleges and universities, the problems can be magnified because their isn't always administrative support, financing or a culture that respects journalism.

An editor's roundtable at the conference allowed HBCU editors to discuss a variety of newsroom issues ranging from dealing with difficult reporters, retaining writers and working with budget constraints.

"We would like to generate more [revenue], but I think that is industry wide, even at the pro level online advertising doesn't bring in as much revenue as people would like," said Caryn Grant, managing editor of Howard University's student newspaper, The Hilltop.

Aside from administrative issues, some editors said HBCU newspapers don't tap all the resources available to them in terms of revenue. Most papers aren't using their websites as a source of revenue but are making strides to plan for improving their digital futures.

"We publish a black and white print but online you can download a color PDF version of our paper; we are in the process of doing a podcast on our site," said Marques Draper, online editor of Jackson State University's website (jsuflash.com).

Draper stressed the urge for more graphics majors to get on board with their student newspapers in some way. "The world is changing and everything is digital; you can't just be print," Draper said.

Draper, who is a JSU graduate student, said he's working to revamp the Flash site, which wasn't taken care of for a while and he's also planning for next year's staff. "I want everything to be a smooth transition. Whoever takes my place can just come in and start where I left off."

Selling local ad space is also a way to increase cash flow and get the community involved in supporting the paper.

J.J. McCorvey

Another issue facing editors is censorship, which has pushed some papers to the brink of extinction. J.J. McCorvey, the managing editor of Tuskegee University's student newspaper The Campus Digest, is one person who has fought tirelessly against administrative control of the student newspaper.

"The main issue at HBCUs is when you want to write articles about the controversial things or you want to let students know what is going on with the issues on campus, they try to hinder you or stop that particular story from coming out," said McCorvey.

Tuskegee, like some other schools in the BCCA, does not have a journalism program or a communications department. "We have to build that newsroom environment on our own," said McCorvey.

Being lumped with every one else in a broad communications program can also add to fund-raising issues. No funding means fewer issues, lower circulations and directly affects most campuses bottom lines.

ESPN host and syndicated columnist Stephen A. Smith talked about fighting the stigma of coming from a non-accredited program at Winston-Salem State University during a conference mixer at the ESPN Zone.

Smith said he was "at a considerable disadvantage" when compared with students from schools that had stronger, accredited a journalism programs.

Smith applied for internships and programs that trained him to become a journalist. When he was chosen to be a part of the elite Met-Pro Internship Program in 1993, Smith beat out other candidates from large journalism schools because of his experience. "I was one of 24 finalists selected, and while they had these grades from prestigious universities, I had 250 published clips -- I had valid evidence for what I could do."

Jameka Merriweather, editor-in-chief of the Panther, Prairie View A&M's student newspaper, said the problem for them is often image. "It's probably the idea that it's an HBCU, there's this automatic negative connotation," Merriweather said.

Prairie View does not have a journalism program, and she also feels that adds to the problem. "It's hard to get people to read, let alone write at Prairie View, and being lumped under the mass communications umbrella doesn't help."

The Hilltop's Caryn Grant said "the process of matriculating through an HBCU will make you stronger in itself."

Grant said when The Hilltop made the shift to becoming a daily paper. "We all thought our editor-in-chief had lost her mind," Grant said. "At the end of the day I think we are growing; we are learning to be a daily paper and the longer we are daily the more it will be like second nature."

Retaining staff members is another problem across the board for HBCU newspapers so there is a premium on keeping the writers you do have around.

"A lot of freshmen and new writers we encounter really don't know the process of how a story is edited so just explaining to them that we need to talk again before your story is turned in because new writers aren't going to get it off the bat, " said Drew Costley, editor in chief at The Hilltop.

The crisis of making sure there is staff in place once current editors graduate or move on has forced editors to be creative as far as attracting new writers and keeping the ones already in the program. Everything from meals, money and trips have been used to lure prospective writers to their papers but what worked most often was making new staffers feel like a member of the team. "It's hard to get communications majors to come and practice their craft," Prairie View's Merriweather said.

Student editors sometimes get caught up with newspaper obligations and forget that they are students first. "It's easy to get burned out, you have to learn how to delegate. I know it's hard to trust people. You have to roll the dice on a few people," said Akeem Anderson, editor-in- chief of The Famuan at Florida A&M University. "You have to take some chances. You're going to take some L's and not get some stories back but you have to do it."

Paying staff members is another hot-button issue that puts writers in a place to decide how much they really love what they do versus making enough money to eat. "The school does not fund us, everything we do is on our own," said Alexander Scott, editor-in-chief of Fayetteville State University's bi-weekly student newspaper The Voice. Scott, who is a freshman English major, said that his $40,000 budget is stretched thin.

The Famuan Akeem Anderson

FAMU's Anderson spoke about a very real situation in his newsroom when money got tight. "Everybody's budget is tighter. I had to stand in front of my staff and say 'Look, the checks aren't here," said Anderson.

"You have to do more with less, you have to try and understand the people who really can't support themselves without a well-paying job," Costley said. "A lot of people come to school and they are completely independent and you have to try and work with those people."

But one editor said getting paid to be a college editor isn't the main benefit. "Whether you get paid or not, at the end of the day it's all about that portfolio," said Lisa East, editor-in-chief of The Southern Digest at Southern University Baton Rouge.

The good news for HBCU papers comes from some of the very problems they have. Most have very small staffs which makes work that much harder but does give many members the opportunity to work on things like design, advertising and other areas they wouldn't even see at larger schools.

The online possibilities for HBCU papers are limitless. Howard University's Hilltop is one paper that recently launched a redesign allowing readers to download podcasts and watch streaming video. They, along with schools like Tennessee State, Florida A&M and North Carolina A&T, are setting digital examples for schools to follow.

Tennessee State has received national recognition in the form of an Associated Press Pacemaker Award for their website (tsumeter.com)

HBCUs are making strides to keep up with industry trends with many papers moving towards software programs like Abode InDesign and Adobe InCopy, some even investing in software to produce podcasts in house or reaching out to campus radio and television outlets for convergence opportunities.

"I think the best part of this conference is we get the chance to just talk with people like us, the people that are doing what we do," Grant said.

"My favorite thing about the conference is the networking," said McCorvey, who received the conference's Pearl Stewart Freedom-Fighter Award for writing an article for Black College Wire about his paper's struggle with administrators. "Journalism is a tight industry and I am bound to see these people either at the next conference or my next job."

The 11th Annual BCCA HBCU National Newspaper Conference will be held at North Carolina Central University in 2009.

Mike McCray is editor-in-chief of the North Carolina A&T Register.

Posted Feb. 19, 2008