Start Spreading The News [To College Students]

As regular readers know, we here at Ypulse are strong supporters of free newspaper access for students. So it should come as no surprise that this initiative from USA Today to test out an e-Edition at select colleges (Penn State, Indiana and Missouri) struck a heartwarming chord. From the article on Yahoo! Tech (ironic, no?):

The “e-Edition” is free for students, faculty and staff. USA Today says it’s identical to the newspaper’s print edition but with additional interactive and exclusive content. For instance, the Penn State edition, which officially launched last week, includes a university-themed story selected and written by the school.

So yes, round of applause for the effort, the free pass, keeping it online and especially for the gesture towards campus-based customization (even if it is only “a” singular university-themed story and it’s unclear if “by the school” means by the school newspaper staffers). Given the initiative spreads to other schools, if students do remember to visit the e-Edition site or sign up for the daily email and click through the links to the stories on a regular basis, the paper may see the boon it needs after the recent decline in readership. And the industry, in general, might be inspired to follow suit.

The thing is… that’s actually a pretty big “IF.” Not to put down USA Today, a publication we’ve celebrated here before for offering a great design for teens (wonder if they’ve considered a high school version of the e-Edition..) and anyone without much news experience, but among college students who just last year ranked Time as their favorite magazine, my sense is with the paper’s longstanding lightweight reputation it wouldn’t be the demo’s first choice for a daily news source. On campus you’re more likely to find students checking out the likes of the New York Times’ site (which has a history of offering premium content to anyone with a .edu address), local student newspapers and/or Comedy Central, blogs, aggregators, etc., etc.

Still, here’s hoping other national newspapers or even ambitious local independents are sitting up and taking notice. We’d love to see more concerted efforts  (i.e., beyond waiving or offering discounts on subscriptions) to provide both community college and university students with premium, customized and/or interactive content. Especially if there was a way to do this while supporting student journalists by integrating their local and campus-based coverage. Not to mention double as a forum for the general student population to discuss and debate current events. As a solution that would result in scads of potential subscribers for publishers, an identifiable target audience for advertisers and a reputable source of quality, in-depth journalism for young people…  this could mean good news all around.

Ypulse readers, if you know of any innovative models being pursued on the local scale specifically aimed at college students, let us know in comments!

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