FHSU to explore interactive delivery
of news and information
The
student newspaper at Fort Hays State University -- The University Leader
-- published its last issue Thursday, falling victim to a trend that
has seen the failure of newspapers from coast to coast.
In just the past
five years, some of the most notable daily newspapers that have ceased
to publish a print edition or completely shut down include The Tucson Citizen, The Rocky Mountain News, The Baltimore Examiner, The Cincinnati Post, The Albuquerque Tribune, The San Juan Star and The Honolulu Advertiser. Most recently, The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, which was founded in 1837, announced that it would cease daily publication and print just three times a week. It also offers the news online.
"We see this as a
great opportunity for our students, the university and the journalism
profession," said Dr. Edward H. Hammond, FHSU president. "We were not
surprised that The Leader is ceasing publication. This is a national
trend driven by the changing economies of the newspaper business, and
the editor and Student Publication Board have kept us informed of The
Leader's ongoing difficulties."
President Hammond
declined a request for the university to bail out The Leader by funding
it through the remainder of this school year, instead opting to devote
the spring semester to studying the news and information needs of the
campus community.
"I will appoint a
task force, chaired by Dr. Paul Faber, dean of the College of Arts and
Sciences, to work with the FHSU administration in designing a
multi-media model to meet news and information needs," he said. "We have
given independent support to the four delivery modalities for news and
information -- print, radio, television and the Internet -- but the time
has come to develop an integrated model."
He said the
university provost, Dr. Larry Gould, and the faculty want the new model
to include academic linkage so that the new multi-media news source will
have synergy to strengthen both the education of FHSU students and the
delivery of news and information. The goal is to implement the new model at the beginning of the fall 2013 semester.
"To assist in the
process, FHSU will sponsor and fund a campus-wide symposium of regional
and possibly national experts who understand the challenges and
solutions of an integrated, multi-media news and information model," Dr.
Hammond said. That public symposium will probably be scheduled for
sometime in March.
"I am not locked
into any specific outcome at this point because I do not want to
prejudge the work of the task force," he added.