NOTE: This appears in our current print edition, here.
By Darren Johnson
Campus News
Here you, dear reader, have happened upon this edition of Campus News, and you may be wondering, how does this thing even exist?
Haven’t print newspapers mostly gone out of business? And aren’t colleges closed?
Some of you may be saying, where did this newspaper come from?
And, yet, there’s no mistaking that in your hands is a physical newspaper. A modern miracle, really.
I started Campus News about 10 and a half years ago. I was an adjunct college journalism instructor at a community college on Long Island (and had a full-time job at another college in administration) and had been advising a rag tag team at an “official” community college newspaper.
The best instructors actually learn from their students, so I took this experience and – noticing that community college newspapers were fading away and not very good, in general – asked potential advertisers if they’d support an independent college publication that hits multiple two-year campuses.
My thought was – soon – community colleges would no longer be able to support viable, single-campus print newspapers. The numbers weren’t there, as most printing plants require at least a 1000 print run, and readership per campus was shrinking well below that. But Campus News could overcome this by printing for multiple campuses. If a campus only has a readership of, say, 600, so be it. We can print thousands because we hit multiple campuses.
I maxed out my credit cards and printed the first few issues of Campus News on spec, enough advertisers jumped on, and here we are many years later. I recently also bought an historic Upstate paper called Journal & Press and use the same templates. The papers can share resources. These are my jobs now.
A couple of years ago, I got the idea of coming out with a New York City street edition of Campus News. We got insurance and permits to place boxes near and around colleges. I saw that other free papers, like the Village Voice, were calling it quits, so figured maybe I could get boxes cheap or free. And, just before the pandemic hit, we got permission to also distribute via those fancy green multi-paper kiosks in Manhattan.
So when colleges shuttered this past March, we were able to keep our circulation, moving it to the boxes instead. What luck! We have 50 more boxes, donated by a recently closed Boston publication, waiting to be re-stickered and hit the streets.
Our pickup rate has been excellent – 100% from most boxes. People actually want this thing called Campus News.
We are monthly, but our year starts September 1, so we need to get the advertisers back on board, to sign up for annual plans. Who knows if they will? We think so, and expect to be back in print for an 11th year. (We’re also expanding our online offerings.)
If you can help us in any way, let us know. We’re scrappy, but have been walking the tightrope for a long time. My email is editor@cccnews.info. Thank you for believing in us enough to pick up this paper!
Darren Johnson publishes Campus News and recently purchased an historic Upstate newspaper called Journal & Press. He was a college instructor and administrator for most of two decades. Before that, he was a community journalist, and his current foray into newspaper publishing proves “you can go back.”
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