The student newspaper at the University of Guelph, The Ontarion is determined to remain in print and digital form despite recent setbacks.
As print journalism has been on the decline in the past decade, the student newspaper has also faced the threat of the Student Choice Initiative introduced by the Ford government a few weeks ago that put student operations on campus in jeopardy by allowing students to allocate their fees where they choose on campus.
The student paper which started in 1951 relies on student fees and advertisers, and only time will tell whether or not students will opt out from funding the print newspaper, but the paper doesn't plan on relying on student fees entirely and believes that students want to have a newspaper they can call their own.
“We learned from the research that we conducted that a lot of students really enjoyed having a print issue and a lot of students really enjoy having the online aspect so they can access things quickly,” said Ontarion editor-in-chief Mirali Almaula.
Prior to the Student Choice Initiative, the board of directors of The Ontarion recognized potential threats to the student paper a few years ago and decided to roll out big changes in order for the newspaper in a plan called Ontarion 2020.
The changes in the plan include shifting the newspaper weekly print editions to monthly, producing daily digital content for breaking news, training the contributors and discovering new revenue streams.
Board president Heather Gilmore said even though print newspapers seem to be on the decline, it's about convenience on campus.
“There are students walking through the university centre and they pass the stands that have our papers on it and you just grab a paper as you go,” said Gilmore.
“There is still an appeal for people to grab a physical copy of the paper.”
Almaula said while they were already creating a plan for The Ontarion 2020, the Student Choice Initiative was rolled out so they took it into concern when making the budget of the paper.
She said they had already planned on shifting from weekly print issues to bi-weekly print issues this semester so they can see how they adapt to these changes so the staff for next year can be prepared for the production cycle when it switches to a monthly cycle.
“We imagine that it will be okay,” said Almaula.
“We want to be a new Ontarion for students and make sure we have as many opportunities for students who are volunteering and portfolio building and resume building as possible and the changes we're making are helpful to our budget and also help us achieve those things.”
