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http:// --> Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Local Issues Obituaries Weather Archive Revels Etcetera Backpage Hot Topics Most Viewed Forum Photo Galleries Video Readers Polls O-Zone Online Games Movie Preview Special Sections Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad Top Galleries: November 24, 2006 Advertisers covet college newspaper spots By Nick Madigan The Baltimore Sun Mainstream newspapers are up against dwindling circulation and shrinking advertising revenues, but college papers have become hot commodities. Spurred by research indicating that about 76 percent of the U.S.'s 6 million full-time college undergraduates read their campus papers at least occasionally, big corporations and advertisers are latching on to student-run publications. One of the most notable examples of the trend occurred in late summer, when a subsidiary of MTV, one of the country's best-known youth brands and part of the Viacom entertainment empire, bought College Publisher, a company that runs Web sites for about 450 college papers. So solid are the economic prospects for the student-run newspaper at Florida State University, FSView & Florida Flambeau, that it was acquired in August by a mainstream newspaper, The Tallahassee Democrat. "There's no more local paper than a campus paper," said Dina Pradel, general manager of Y2M, which founded College Publisher in 1999. She said that while large urban newspapers are trying to woo younger readers, college papers have a ready-made audience willing to read news about their immediate environment and to be tempted by ads targeted to their tastes. The typical campus audience they cater to, she said, is "a very attractive demographic," a group whose members will spend $1 million or more in buying things and services over a lifetime. While in college, many students will make major first-time purchasing decisions — cars, insurance, electronics — a market advertisers dearly covet. The health of campus papers is due also, in part, to the explosive growth of the Internet and of Web-based advertising, much of it aimed at the young. About 600 campus papers publish online editions, and advertisers have been quick to exploit their potential. Many campus newspaper Web sites carry ads from national retail chains and other big-ticket companies. And students are checking in. A recent survey by Student Monitor, which tracks the buying habits, concerns and activities of students nationwide, showed that, while students watch an average of 10 hours of television a week, they spend 15 hours a week online. At the same time, college students still read the papers' print editions. A Student Monitor study says 76 percent of college students surveyed during the spring semester this year read one out of the previous five print editions of their campus paper. That number has remained roughly consistent for almost two decades, never dropping below the high 60s, said Eric Weil, managing partner of Student Monitor, which twice a year surveys 1,200 full-time students on 100 four-year campuses. The difference now, he said, is that 38 percent of students regularly read an online edition of their campus paper, and they spend an average of 19 minutes doing so, Weil said. Readers of campus newspapers inhabit somewhat insulated ecosystems, with their own news, personalities and events, so picking up a free copy or browsing for its content online is, for many students, almost automatic. "We have a captive audience," said Brian Stelter, in his third year as editor of The Towerlight, at Towson University in Maryland. The purchase of Y2M, the parent of College Publisher, by the MTV subsidiary mtvU this summer was a clear signal that big-money interests were looking with favor on college newspapers and their Web sites. In addition to providing online tech support to campus papers — as well as adding podcasts and video tools — College Publisher acts as an advertising agency, placing national ads on the papers' Web sites in exchange for a share of the revenue. For the MTV subsidiary, the purchase of Y2M and its College Publisher unit was "an amazing opportunity to have a visceral connection with students," said Stephen Friedman, general manager of mtvU. Friedman said his company is working with 150 national advertisers who are looking to connect with college students. "Advertisers understand that to get inside the college bubble, you need multiple touch points — on air, online, in the paper," he said. Students "have a massive amount of buying power," said Jason Bakker, marketing director at Campus Media Group, a Minnesota-based marketing company that helps ad agencies reach high-school and college students. Given many students' relative inexperience with what Bakker calls first-time "buying dilemmas," they are prime targets for advertisers. "It's a really great entry point for national advertisers to introduce them to a brand or service and hopefully build brand loyalty at an early stage," Bakker said. "The audience is relatively pure, in the sense that a brand can be pretty much assured they're going to reach their target demo." At Florida State University, the audience of the twice-weekly FSView & Florida Flambeau was evidently desirable enough for The Tallahassee Democrat, owned by the Gannett Co., the country's largest newspaper chain. The student paper's editor, Brandon Mellor, said the paper's purchase by the big local daily this summer "came as a shock" on the very day the deal was consummated, andthere were fears on campus "that the Democrat would take over" the student body's singular voice. "It isn't true and it won't be true," said Mellor, a senior who oversees 14 editors and about 25 writers, all students. "It's not that big a deal in the long run. The only thing is that we get paid a little differently, but there's no input as to what we run in the paper." So why was he told the takeover by the Democrat had occurred? "They felt they weren't reaching the college audience," Mellor said. "They saw it as a way to reach that audience and make some money at the same time." Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service. 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