Extra! Extra! A college’s paper is online again, an E-mail has been sent and all of the stories of the day’s paper are ready to be read. But if a tree didn’t fall to create the online edition, will anybody notice it’s there?
A parent, alumnus, or local resident will be more likely to take a look at the latest issue online. Students, however, are more likely to wait until they can get smudges of ink on their hands.
At least that’s what a recent study from the Student Monitor, a market research firm, reported in a survey of many campuses across the country. Only 30 percent of schools even have an online edition, and of those, only 29 percent of students had read at least one of these online issues during the previous month. By comparison, 44 percent of students read at least three or more print issues the previous month.
Students at Fairfield seem to reflect the national statistics. As of Oct. 15, an anemic 12 percent of students, 391, had registered to read The Mirror Online. Students give a variety of reasons why they do not read the online edition.
“I don’t read The Mirror Online,” said Mike Brosnan, ’03. “I suck at using the Internet.”
Melissa Hopkins, ’04, doesn’t read the online edition for different reasons. “I really don’t know what it has to offer. Perhaps it hasn’t been promoted enough. Also, sometimes it’s more convenient to have it right in front of you then to make the effort to go online and read it.”
Another issue with online editions is that many require an E-mail address to access the site. College Publisher, one of the largest providers of online Web site management, has required this on sites like The Mirror’s. The goal is to obtain a larger list of people who read the paper, so they can receive an E-mail when new stories are posted to bring them back to the site.
Hopkins had issues with this. “I don’t want to receive more unwanted E-mail [by giving my address].”
However, The Mirror’s online site has more than 1500 registered readers and is on pace to receive record readership during the month of October. The site is currently averaging over 1000 hits a day, higher than last year’s range of between 500 and 750 hits per day.
Hits are up on college newspaper sites regardless of student traffic since many sites are allowing alumni, parents, and town residents to read news that they otherwise would not have access to. For example, The Arizona Daily Wildcat, at the University of Arizona, received more than 300,000 hits and over 1,000,000 page views, according to The New York Times. Mark Woodhams, director of student media and advisor to The Wildcat, told The Times that many of those hits came from off campus.
In addition, the advent of college paper wires like the University Wire, which offers hundreds of papers the chance to share stories with papers across the country, create a new audience for their more popular authors and columns.
Other ways online sites like The Mirror drive traffic to their Web sites are by putting updates, new stories and columns exclusively online to encourage students and off-campus visitors alike to read more often. Usually, these are accompanied by house advertisements to encourage print readers to take a look at the Web site.
For some students, this is an encouragement. Monica Regan, ’04, reads the online edition, in part because of the additional online content. “I like to read the online exclusives if a topic is interesting to me.”
John Fees, chief executive of College Publisher, told The Times that he thought the online edition would supplement the print version when he said that it is “indicative of a trend we believe to be forming in how students interact with their campus newspaper.”
However, despite the online edition’s additional benefits, many believe that the anticipation and ultimate arrival of the print edition will remain the most popular choice. “Take a trip to any student union, and you will see a bunch of students sitting at the table who read newspapers and socialize,” Eric Weil, the managing partner of Student Monitor, told The Times. “You can’t move that kind of activity to the web.”
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