On the Campus: February 19, 1997

TOO MANY VOICES, NOT ENOUGH CASH
But who cares? With few exceptions, nobody reads student publications anyway

BY JEREMY CAPLAN '97

With a name like VENT, one might expect the newest campus magazine to be a brash liberal journal or perhaps a Rush Limbaugh-esque forum for vehement conservatives. Think again. VENT is devoted to art, poetry, and prose. When Mary Jo Valentino '99 and Alison Ho '98 met last spring to plan their new journal, they agreed that the community needed a new window into the creative side of Princeton.
Before launching VENT into a sea of publications already overflowing on campus, Valentino and Ho were well aware of the difficulties student magazines face in the saturated student market. Most of them run a straight path from the mailbox to the recycling bin, without so much as a peek from students overwhelmed with class readings.
THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN is an exception; most students subscribe to keep up with campus news, sports, . . . and ads. Although a typical issue covers speeches on campus, student-government meetings, and student achievements, the most vital feature in the PRINCE may be the notices detailing campus meetings and events. The PRINCE remains the primary medium for community dialogue, with an editorial page known for stirring up debate. The NASSAU WEEKLY is likewise controversial, but more for its flamboyent style than for its content. While the PRINCE stands at the center of campus journalism, the NASSAU prides itself on being Princeton's alternative publication. "The NASSAU WEEKLY pushes the envelope," says former editor-in-chief Kerrie Mitchell '96. "It's important to have a different voice on campus, one that's willing to skewer things."
The PRINCE and NASSAU haven't adopted political labels, but other periodicals devote themselves to liberal or conservative writing. The PROGRESSIVE REVIEW, for example, is a monthly forum for left-leaning thought, "a voice for social justice," according to its web page. Despite the efforts of students like PROG editor Stephanie Brancaforte '97, many publications suffer from a lack of student interest. "Sometimes the only faithful readers of a magazine are, sadly, its producers, and possibly its competitors," she says.
One magazine with no trouble attracting readers is the oldest campus magazine, The PRINCETON TIGER, founded in 1882. "We exist for the sole purpose of making life a little more lighthearted and less stressful for students and faculty," said former chairman Charles Coxe '97. Unfortunately, despite a staff of witty writers and a streak of recent successful issues, TIGER has suffered a financial fate common to campus publications. "We just never have enough money," Coxe admits. "We had to cancel our Christmas issue because we didn't have enough ads to pay for it."
Nearly every magazine, new and old, struggles to find regular advertisers, but the concern is especially serious for publications that do not publish regularly or that have a short history on campus. Even THE PRINCETON ECLECTIC, a high-quality, quarterly journal in its third full year of publishing poetry, fiction, and photography, has a hard time meeting costs. Since area stores satisfy their demand for advertising with PRINCE ads, which reach nearly all students, demand for ad space in other publications is low. The university administration and the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) supply loans and grants to cover some costs, but the threat of extinction looms over publishers' heads. Some magazines cancel issues they can't afford to produce. One recent arts journal, MAIN STREET, failed within a year of its founding. A way around the ad problem is to publish exclusively on the web, an option taken by THE PRINCETON SPIGOT and EUPHORBUS, two variety journals. Several publications, including THE PROG, THE ECLECTIC, THE TIGER, and a puzzle magazine, DISTRACTIONS, have web sites (links can be found on PAW's home page: http://www.princeton.edu/~paw/links.html). None plan to discontinue their print versions as yet.
"As a general rule, about a third of the publications are in debt," said former ECLECTIC publisher Jason Woodard '97. "It's a problem endemic to the publication community." Woodard started the Princeton Publishers Guild last spring in order to address this problem. The guild works with the USG and the university, trying to keep publications out of debt without interfering with the tight advertising market. According to Woodard, the guild strives to provide its assistance "in a way that stimulates sound business practices."
VENT cofounder Valentino says that "funding is our biggest obstacle. It's a big part of the project, and the Princeton market for advertising is really dried up." Mitchell agrees. "There can only be as many publications as the community of advertisers here will support." But it is apathy, as much as debt, that is the real challenge for student publishers.
Some think there are already too many periodicals aimed at the relatively small campus audience. "Do we really need three conservative political publications?" Coxe asks. With the current struggles for readers and advertising revenue, he may not have to worry: there may not be three of them for long.

Jeremy Caplan has written for the DAILY PRINCETONIAN, NASSAU WEEKLY, and PRINCETON ECLECTIC.


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