Diamondback said that it would do early next
year. Half of the newspapers that haven’t
abandoned paper, like the Daily Orange, say
they’re not printing as many copies.
Robertson touts the transition as a way to
follow the industry by going more digital,
and the D.O. has an active web site and social
media presence. Yet there’s only so much staff
members can do. They are students, after all.
The University of North Carolina’s Daily Tar Heel
switched to three days a week in 2017 when
its directors suddenly realized they were going
broke, said Maddy Arrowood, the paper’s editor-
in-chief. The newspaper cut the pay of staff
members and moved into a new, smaller office
above a restaurant.
The Daily Tar Heel is testing out newsletters
targeted at people with special interests, and
its reporters are trying to attract off-campus
readers and advertisers by covering news in the
surrounding community of Chapel Hill, N.C.
“I spend most of my time very aware of our
financial situation,” Arrowood said. “We’re always
trying to tell the newsroom that your goal is to
produce the best content that you can and be
an indispensable resource for our readers.”
One small victory: last year the Daily Tar Heel
reported a tiny profit.
Struggling with a $280,000 debt, the Hilltop
at Howard University printed its first edition
this semester in mid-October. The Maneater
at the University of Missouri used to print
twice a week, then once. Now it’s down to
once a month. It operates separately from a
newspaper run by faculty and students that
covers the town of Columbia.