The Daily Free Press is not immune to the hardships most of the newspaper industry faces today as it struggles with tens of thousands of dollars of debt and outstanding bills, Free Press staff and former staff members said.
As of August 2009, Back Bay Publishing Co., the student-run company that owns the newspaper, owed more than $67,500 to their printer Turley Publications and just under $10,000 in rent to Boston University and had not paid some of their office staff for two months, according to a financial report compiled by a former editor-in-chief.
‘The paper’s cash-on-hand, debt to various individuals and companies and anticipated costs for the 2009-2010 academic year mean the DFP is insolvent and must consider filing for bankruptcy as an option if the paper’s business model is not changed immediately,’ the financial report, which was released to BBP Board of Trustees members in June 2009, stated.
Advertisements are the independent, student-run newspaper’s only source of revenue, and as of August 2009, advertisers owed The Free Press more than $30,000 for previously printed ads, according to the financial report. This amount is down from $115,000 owed in May after BBP began an aggressive collection campaign.
But without the financial resources to pressure collection, 78 percent of bills during the last academic year were three months overdue.
Bad bookkeeping may have also contributed to the Free Press’ financial troubles. Discrepancies between recorded revenue and actual collection during a five-week period in early summer were off by as much as 53 percent, according to the financial report.
This financial crisis had been a long time coming, BBP board members said. Daily printing costs can range up to $1,542 if the paper reaches 12 pages.
‘ BBP Board of Trustees Chairwoman Evelyn Ratigan, former city editor and a College of Communication senior, said the debt was caused by a number of problems such as bad management in the past, law suits, legal fees, an unnecessarily large office and printing costs.
‘Also, the economy has hit our advertisers,’ she said. ‘They are doing more self-advertising and there is a trickle-down effect to us.’
Efforts to stem the Free Press’ financial bleeding in the past few years have focused on reducing expenses, including downsizing circulation to 4,000, cutting printing on Fridays and cutting the paper to eight to 12 pages from an average of 24. ‘
And advertisers will now have to prepay for the advertisements they want placed. The Free Press also plans to overpay their rent to BU by $1,000 each month in an effort to pay off their former Commonwealth Avenue office by April 2010.
Free Press board members are also reaching out to alumni for help. The Alumni Association last year raised more than $2,500, according to Alumni Association president Dan Atkinson.
‘Our job is to connect everybody, and so it’s a natural part of getting together that we support the FreeP financially,’ Spring 2006 Editor-in-Chief Kyle Cheney, who acts as a liaison between the current board members and alumni, said. ‘There’s a bond between people who have pulled all-nighters together.’
Campus newspapers around the country have also undergone financial woe.
From University of California-Berkeley’s Daily Californian which cut Wednesday edition, staff size and pay to Syracuse University’s Daily Orange which cut Friday edition, school newspapers are cutting back.
And the Free Press is no exception, with an unpaid volunteer staff that changes each semester.
With stacks of old issues piled to nose level, clunky Mac Computers, a leaky ceiling and posters of past and current reporters’ witticisms on the walls, the current Free Press newsroom in Kenmore Square looks like it has seen better days. But it also looks like someone’s home.
‘We try not to let the business side affect the reporting,’ current Free Press Editor-in-Chief Vivian Ho said. ‘We are watchdogs for the corporation of BU. It’s all about getting the news out and bringing a voice to the BU community.’
‘We are trying to be more open and honest,’ Ho said. ‘The Free Press belongs to the students, and it’s up to them to make it their own.’
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If every BU student contributed a quarter, the paper would be set. Come on students, don’t be so cheap!!