The fortunes of Trinity College Dublin's independent student newspaper this year illustrate the strengths and vulnerabilities of student publications.
Trinity News, now entering its 46th year, prides itself on its independence and its track record of producing journalists who go on to succeed in the mainstream media.
Its present editor, second-year business and politics student Damien Connon, started the year with an ambitious plan: transform the traditionally tabloid TN into a broad-sheet newspaper with a tabloid culture and entertainment magazine inside, in a similar style to the British Guardian newspaper. Such a large undertaking was going to require some serious desktop publishing technology. Trinity's publications committee were prevailed upon to buy three new Apple Mac computers with more memory and processing speed than the ones Trinity News previously had to struggle with. A high-resolution scanner was also purchased so that photographs and images could be transferred onto disc and manipulated on screen.
"All of our production is done electronically," Connon says. "There's no cutting up columns of printed text and pasting them on to a blank sheet as was done here until recently. Most of our articles come in on floppy disc or by email - we rarely accept written or typed submissions. "When the production of the paper is finished, we send it to the printers on zip discs, which have the storage capacity of 100 ordinary floppy discs. Eventually we hope to use ISDN lines to send the finished paper directly from our computer to the printer's." With the help of the new technology, the switchover from tabloid to broad-sheet was pulled off in style, with the front page of the newspaper looking more modern and colourful than many national newspapers. There were plenty of lively stories for the paper to get its teeth into: thousands of Trinity students were still homeless at the start of the autumn term because of the student accommodation crisis; a TCD science student had just won the Rose of Tralee; and building work had delayed the reopening of the student bar.
Some 6,000 copies of the newspaper were distributed on campus and in newsagents, bars and cafes near Trinity. The paper was also published on the World Wide Web. The printing bill, around £2,500, was substantial for a student publication, but with an entirely voluntary staff, a number of regular advertisers and a subsidy from Trinity's publications committee, the finances looked fairly healthy.
Then, in the third issue of the term, disaster struck. A headline which wrongly implied negligence on the part of a member of Trinity's staff slipped through the proof-reading process and libel proceedings were initiated by the staff member soon after publication. The newspaper's legal advisers advised them to settle the case quickly and a substantial compensation payment was made. As a result of the libel settlement, Trinity News had to undergo some severe belt tightening. Some £800 was cut off the printing bill by reintegrating the entertainment section into the main newspaper and reducing the paper to one section. From now on, each edition would have to be 70 per cent funded by advertising.
Financing the paper almost entirely by advertising was not going to be easy. "It's incredibly difficult to persuade advertisers to come on board a student newspaper," Connon says. "It's possibly the biggest drawback of the job. Whereas our readers think we're professional, whereas people in PR firms who deal with us see us as important, major advertisers just do not want to deal with us because we're not here nine-to-five five days a week and because we take a break for the summer." Connon is determined not to let the paper's financial problems compromise the quality of its content. He has plans to finance the return of the tabloid section by making it a more attractive proposition for advertisers. He has planned a themed supplement on how students can go about getting a J1 visa to work and live in America for the holidays; he hopes that will pull in advertisements from travel companies and employers. A graduate jobs supplement is also planned. The libel action may have had the paper on the ropes for a few weeks, but such is the determination of Trinity News's voluntary staff that it's unlikely to prove a knockout blow.
