Cork Student News (Paper Version a Possibility)

Byron85

Well first off, a paper edition is being considered.

http://www.corkstudentnews.com/breaking-news/cork-student-news-contemplates-paper-launch-september-5189

PRESS RELEASE: The Cork Student News is contemplating launching a paper version of its website in September, the student news website has announced.
The website, launched in February 2010, is thought to be the most viewed student news source in UCC, attracting over 5,000 visitors to its pages every fortnight, comfortably exceeding the official college newspaper’s circulation of just 3,000, a fact which has led the website’s team to consider launching the website in a paper format. On busy days the site receives over 1,500 unique visitors.
The website has already held meetings with several Cork printing firms about the prospect of printing a pilot first issue. The first issue, however, wouldn’t become available until September at the earliest. The website’s Editor called the move being contemplated by the whole team ‘exciting’, though added with caution that ‘the first issue very much depends on receiving funding, primarily through advertising’.
Many details of the planned first issue, however, have already been nailed out. The Editor said that the newspaper would go ‘in direct competition with the Express‘, being distributed around campus in a similar fashion to the official university publication. ‘Competition is always a good thing’, said the Editor, ‘when you look at Trinity and UCD, which both have two student newspapers, you think that there’s room for a second player in UCC’.
Although financial figures are currently being crunched, it’s hoped that the paper will be free. ‘The worst case scenario’, said the Editor, ‘is that we’d have to impose a nominal fee for the paper, say, 50c, but that’s the worst case scenario and we’re very much working towards bringing out a free newspaper, just like the Express’.
Newspaper will be free unless enough ad revenue can't be raised, says Editor.

The Editor said that he’d been overwhelmed by the popularity of the website so far: ‘I started the website hoping to become – at best – a sort of off-topic glorified blog, but the website just kind of took off. Getting listed on Google News really pushed the web traffic up, as did coverage we got in the Examiner and we’ve had an enormous amount of co-operation from local city businesses and venue owners, for example, who seem as eager as we are to get this thing off the ground! Next year’ll be tough though. I believe the Express will be launching a website too which will put pressure on us to up our game. I wouldn’t called it a ‘battle’, but it’s certainly a healthy rivalry in the making’.
The website has an expansion phase planned for the new college year involving the recruitment of a larger team of writers: ‘There’s enormous pressure on the people currently working on the website – myself included – to get content up on a daily basis’, said O’Carroll, ‘given that we also have exams to study for the situation’s pretty untenable; the only way the website/newspaper’s going to become viable in the long run is if we can bring together a team of, say, at least 50 contributors, and as many as possible’.

Does the Cork Student News need a paper version?

• No, the website's fine!
• Yes, paper is a step forward.

http://www.corkstudentnews.com/about/readership


Secondly, I thought i'd throw around some facts and figures about the site thus far.

Some website and user statistics for CorkStudentNews.com, April 2010
1504 average number of pageviews per day.
378 average number of unique visitors per day.
21% percentage of our visitors who come directly to the website (as opposed to through a search engine).
5292 people (on average) view the website every fortnight vs 3000 estimated circulation of UCC Express.
69% of our website visitors are from Ireland.
1 Number of visitors from Macedonia, Saudi Arabia and Brazil!
692 Pages and directories on our websites!
289 Number of finished articles on our website.
19 Staff writers and Editors
UCC’s most viewed student news source.
One of the fastest expanding student media websites in Ireland.
Source: Google Analytics

PhatPiggins

Newspapers are a dying breed. The most important factor is can you cover costs and if its free I'd say you'll struggle. I wouldn't fancy being in the library with 2,000 discarded copies of the CSN on top of the already 2,000 copies of the Express floating around.

Personally I prefer the CSN but I'm a mature student and find the majority of whats in the Express drivel. It would be interesting to find out the age demograph of the site visitors and how many of them are based on the UCC campus.

I say stick to what your doing at least for another year. A nominal fee of 50C? You'd be lucky to sell 200 copies imo. Would the demand for the Express be even 5% of the current distribution if they charged for it?

Byron85

PhatPiggins wrote: »

Newspapers are a dying breed. The most important factor is can you cover costs and if its free I'd say you'll struggle. I wouldn't fancy being in the library with 2,000 discarded copies of the CSN on top of the already 2,000 copies of the Express floating around.

Personally I prefer the CSN but I'm a mature student and find the majority of whats in the Express drivel. It would be interesting to find out the age demograph of the site visitors and how many of them are based on the UCC campus.

I say stick to what your doing at least for another year. A nominal fee of 50C? You'd be lucky to sell 200 copies imo. Would the demand for the Express be even 5% of the current distribution if they charged for it?

Good points there and i'm sure they're something the editorial board will take into consideration if they haven't already.

I'd be interested myself to see what the age demographic is myself.

LutherBlissett

Firstly - nobody will pay 50c for a copy, or if they would, they would be in the minority. You could have the Express for free, or in the alternative have college gossip filter down to you without touching a newspaper - this is also free, and what most students go for!

As a publication, a few issues do arise in relation to Cork Student News - it lacks the overall coherence that you get when reading official uni publications - its features are a bit all over the place, with no consistent angle or theme. As regards news reporting - it's far too focused on reports about the activities of friends close to the writers. It sometimes appears a bit "in jokey", which is rarely attractive in a publication. Humour is fine (cf the TCD's "Pirhana" etc), but it has to be generalised so as to capture the widest audience possible.

But all in all it's a nice diversion, keep it up!

PhatPiggins

T.W.H Byron wrote: »

Good points there and i'm sure they're something the editorial board will take into consideration if they haven't already.

I'd be interested myself to see what the age demographic is myself.

I wouldn't be in the least surprised if you found that it was the final year/mature student and recently graduated who are making up a lot of your hits. The fact that 31% of the traffic is outside Ireland may support the theory. The Express is so campus in the last two weeks focused that its never going to appeal to the outside world.

The main gist of my theory is would there be much point in circulating a paper on campus if a significant proportion of you readership is based elsewhere. You should at least take the possibility into consideration when budgeting.

Eliot Rosewater

Are you heavily involved Mr Byron? :P

Byron85

Eliot Rosewater wrote: »

Are you heavily involved Mr Byron? :P

Well I do have my own opinion column in there somewhere. To be honest though there are others involved that do far more work than I do, Daniel the editor in chief being the main guy.

samf

I know this would go against everything you all believe in - but if you were to apply for funding under the student media executive you could get the majority of the costs covered, it would limit you to being a UCC paper but if paper is the direction you want to go then dont rule it out without investigating.

Byron85

samf wrote: »

I know this would go against everything you all believe in - but if you were to apply for funding under the student media executive you could get the majority of the costs covered, it would limit you to being a UCC paper but if paper is the direction you want to go then dont rule it out without investigating.

As far as I know it's completely ruled out. That's why the name was changed to CorkStudentNews from the previous name of UCCStudentNews. We wouldn't have had full creative control to say the least. That's all i'm really willing to divulge on the issue as it's not my place to say anymore but I will say this; when I found out about the "conditions" of continuing to use the previous name, I was disgusted. That's not a dig at you at all Sam but more so a comment aimed at the higher ups either in the S.U or the college itself.

samf

Oh right well you may want to reconsider if you want the UCC audience cos only official UCC publications are allowed to be distributed on campus, so if you want to be able to do that then there's no other option but to be under media exec. Its not a bad thing though and it solves the funding issue.

Byron85

samf wrote: »

Oh right well you may want to reconsider if you want the UCC audience cos only official UCC publications are allowed to be distributed on campus, so if you want to be able to do that then there's no other option but to be under media exec. Its not a bad thing, it would mean you'd be back to being UCC student news, but it solves the funding issue.

I'd be surprised if it's even considered. If the paper does go ahead it's not a big deal to stand outside the gate. I'm happy either way as it manages to keep my brain ticking over.:D

Einhard

It's funny that ten years ago, a move to an online edition of a newspaper would have attracted headlines. Now its news when a paper print is considered. Methinks it shows where the newspaper industry is heading.

rebel girl 15

Einhard wrote: »

It's funny that ten years ago, a move to an online edition of a newspaper would have attracted headlines. Now its news when a paper print is considered. Methinks it shows where the newspaper industry is heading.

Industry is now heading to online versions of papers, number of high profile newspaper now going charging for online content, with more to follow.

Sounds like a great idea to try it as a print version, but I like the current online version - online is where it is at the moment imo

PhatPiggins

T.W.H Byron wrote: »

I'd be surprised if it's even considered. If the paper does go ahead it's not a big deal to stand outside the gate. I'm happy either way as it manages to keep my brain ticking over.:D

How could you look at yourself in the mirror if you even think about going under the UCC banner.

Byron85

samf wrote: »

Oh right well you may want to reconsider if you want the UCC audience cos only official UCC publications are allowed to be distributed on campus, so if you want to be able to do that then there's no other option but to be under media exec. Its not a bad thing though and it solves the funding issue.

That's a rather legally dubious claim for two reasons:

• The Times, Examiner, Indo, etc, are sold all over campus; these aren't official college publications.
• Non official college flyers are constantly being distributed.

Either way, if the paper is going ahead, it'll be distributed.

samf

T.W.H Byron wrote: »

The Times, Examiner, Indo, etc, are sold all over campus; these aren't official college publications.

Yep - difference I suppose being that theyre sold and not handed out every week for free, and these are national papers.

T.W.H Byron wrote: »

Non official college flyers are constantly being distributed.

Most flyers on campus are from clubs/socs/su/ucc. The ones that arent official are not permitted, there's a reason all the pizza flyers/local shop/nightclub flyers are generally handed out at the back and front gate. These arent my rules so dont blame me for them but just keep it in mind that it could make distribution on campus rather difficult if you want to go down that road.

PhatPiggins

samf wrote: »

Yep - difference I suppose being that theyre sold and not handed out every week for free, and these are national papers.


Most flyers on campus are from clubs/socs/su/ucc. The ones that arent official are not permitted, there's a reason all the pizza flyers/local shop/nightclub flyers are generally handed out at the back and front gate. These arent my rules so dont blame me for them but just keep it in mind that it could make distribution on campus rather difficult if you want to go down that road.

The Cork Independent is freely distributed on campus.

samf

Is it? i've never seen it, where do they hand them out?

Maybe you'd get away with distributing on campus, I dunno, wont have anything to do with me, but just warning you about it in case it does present a problem when you're trying to distribute.

PhatPiggins

samf wrote: »

Is it? i've never seen it, where do they hand them out?

Maybe you'd get away with distributing on campus, I dunno, wont have anything to do with me, but just warning you about it in case it does present a problem when you're trying to distribute.

They have small white stands in a few locations, there's one in the Orb and another in the Kane. There is no one physically handing them out nor do they leave satcks of them all over campus like the Express but they're there alright.

MissEm

Non official college flyers are not allowed on campus which is why they are distributed at the college gates. UCC is not going to allow an unofficial college paper to be distributed on campus, they already got Cork Student News to change it's name so they are not going to back distribution on campus. I also think this rivalry with the Express is trying to make something out of nothing, many of the CSN writers are already writing with the Express, most of them are writing with CSN to further their portfolio for future journalistic careers or are doing a favour for the editor

Byron85

MissEm wrote: »

Non official college flyers are not allowed on campus which is why they are distributed at the college gates. UCC is not going to allow an unofficial college paper to be distributed on campus, they already got Cork Student News to change it's name so they are not going to back distribution on campus. I also think this rivalry with the Express is trying to make something out of nothing, many of the CSN writers are already writing with the Express, most of them are writing with CSN to further their portfolio for future journalistic careers or are doing a favour for the editor

I don't think that many of the current writers are regulars with The Express. I know a few, 3 or so, used to contribute on a regular basis but most of us haven't contributed or had the chance to contribute to The Express. As for UCC "not allowing" the paper to be distributed on campus, well we'll see when or if the time comes around.

Also, while most of the writers with CSN are UCC students, the site is not an un-official UCC publication. It is meant to encompass all of the colleges in Cork it's just that at the moment, seeing that it is early days and all, we don't have too many people from outside of UCC writing for us.

daithilinnane

UCC's media is a small enough circle at the moment, so there is always going to be crossover of staff, same way there is between Motley, the Express and Cork Campus Radio. For example the Arts Editor of Motley this year was the Express designer, one of the Express's lead games writers was Motley's online editor, and the Editor, Designer and Deputy Entertainments editor, as well as two Express writers sat on the Campus Radio Management Board. Same thing is happening with CSN, since the Express finished up for the year a few of the staff have migrated to it, including myself, I was the Editor of the Express but I have written news for CSN and will be doing so again in the near future. Any rivalry isn't because of personal issues, its just business. And rivalry is great! If there are two outlets like that then both have to improve in order to be taken notice of.

As for a print edition, I'm not sure of the on-campus rules, but I think the real issue is with funding. It costs a lot to print a paper, so it would need a significant investment at the start. Advertising could help that, but only to a certain extent. Thousands of euros would be needed to keep it going. If it can be done it would be fantastic though. Between an official newspaper, an official magazine, a radio station and an unofficial paper, as well as a few other projects that are in the pipeline, next year cold be a fantastic year for student journalism.

Byron85

daithilinnane wrote: »

UCC's media is a small enough circle at the moment, so there is always going to be crossover of staff, same way there is between Motley, the Express and Cork Campus Radio. For example the Arts Editor of Motley this year was the Express designer, one of the Express's lead games writers was Motley's online editor, and the Editor, Designer and Deputy Entertainments editor, as well as two Express writers sat on the Campus Radio Management Board. Same thing is happening with CSN, since the Express finished up for the year a few of the staff have migrated to it, including myself, I was the Editor of the Express but I have written news for CSN and will be doing so again in the near future. Any rivalry isn't because of personal issues, its just business. And rivalry is great! If there are two outlets like that then both have to improve in order to be taken notice of.

As for a print edition, I'm not sure of the on-campus rules, but I think the real issue is with funding. It costs a lot to print a paper, so it would need a significant investment at the start. Advertising could help that, but only to a certain extent. Thousands of euros would be needed to keep it going. If it can be done it would be fantastic though. Between an official newspaper, an official magazine, a radio station and an unofficial paper, as well as a few other projects that are in the pipeline, next year cold be a fantastic year for student journalism.

That is an inherent problem with media in UCC and in particular The Express. The circle is small but it isn't as open as you would like to think. It's rather closed off to be honest; at least that's how I found my experience with The Express. I can't speak for the others though.

Byron85

Ok, so after talking with the head Editor, it seems that a print edition is not on the way for the foreseeable future at the very least. It has been decided that the current format is the way forward along with some variations which will become apparent over time. So that's that for the moment.

Also, we're running a competition at the moment to win two tickets to Booker T at the opera house. More information at the following link.

http://www.corkstudentnews.com/competitions/win-two-tickets-to-booker-t-the-opera-house-5211

daniel.ocarroll

Hi Guys,

Just got to check up on this thread that I hadn't really seen up to now, so thought that I'd weight in with some of my comments about what ye're talking about.

1/ Current status: paper is only being considered. The points about the industry in general migrating from paper to the internet are very valid and bear largely on my consideration of whether to go offline or not. Yes, more and more newspaper and news sources are going online, but it's not time to sound the death knell for print publishing just yet. There's still a future there but I'm not sure whether or not that future warrants the kind of investment..

2/ Which brings me on to finances. The cost of one issue would be at least €1800; this is probably the main disadvantage of this plan. That money could be spent on a whole ton of stuff to make the website better: logo-mikes, printed windshield mic covers (more expensive than you'd think), a news studio (kind of ambitious I guess but you never know!), voice recorders, business cards, promo materials, etc. In other words the more I think about it the harder it is to justify the cost of it. As economist would put it the opportunity cost is very high - far better uses than printing 2000 copies of something at least half of which could end up in the bin very quickly!

3/ Someone said that the website is too in-jokey and insular. Very true at the moment. Some - but not all - of the staff are close friends of mine. I'm very mindful that some articles could be construed as such and have been trying my best to make sure that the articles have as broad an appeal as possible. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that we're gradually steering in a better direction in that respect. I've laid down some guidelines re:comments as well to make the website appeal to a broader group of people.

4/ Another criticism was the lack of cogency for the news content and the website is general. This is quite a valid point. The reason is that we have a very small staff at the moment (or at least a small staff who actually write regularly!) as well as exams pressures and finally the fact that as the academic year is winding up there's not much to write about. To put that more clearly: we're putting up almost whatever we get in. Standards will be tightened up at the start of the next college year but at the moment focus is on getting content on the site, building web traffic, and getting our name out there; quality, cogency and consistency necessarily suffer as a result.

5/ Crossover with the Express. Daithi put it perfectly. The community interested in writing is small so inevitably there'll be some people involved with both the Express and the CSN. I don't perceive this as a problem. As I'm the one running the CSN I decided not to run for any positions in this year's Express; that would have been an obvious conflict of interest and an untenable position. But someone writing for the CSN can also write for the Express and there's no problem with that. Freelance journalists often write for several publications without anyone making an issue out of it.

6/ Can't really comment on whether we could distribute on campus or not should we become a paper, but I tend to think yes. Main question is what kind of property the campus is, and as a corollary of that what sort of regulations the college can impose vis-a-vis our use of the campus. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, public v private interest in land all figure. In short, it's a difficult legal question and I just don't know!

Hope that clears up some of the points about the site raised in this thread. Please PM me, e-mail me (editor@corkstudentnews.com) or use the online contact form to point out anything you think is bad about the website. Feedback is 100% appreciated. If someone tells me that they liked an article I learn nothing from the experience; if people tell me what's wrong with the website I can work towards improving it!

Daniel.