Throughout its existence the Jacket Journal has seen changes in the number of hardcopies a semester, due largely to a decrease in advertisements and increased production costs.

The Jacket Journal’s staff is paid by advertisements and in recent years fundraisers as well. Ad representatives seeking businesses out has been the main way the newspaper has gotten ads.

“When it came to the businesses, I did a lot of cold walking, going to the business and soliciting cold. But it was not so bad due to the fact that I was a “student” so it came off much less confrontational,” wrote Saeed Sulaiman who was Ad Manager in 2011.

In the past getting businesses to buy ads wasn’t difficult. The newspaper had seen falling ad revenues since around 2008.

According to an article on Journalism.org titled “The Newspaper Industry Overall” print advertising sales in newspapers have been cut in half since 2007. Sales have decreased from 45 million to 22 million across the United States. The Jacket Journal has not escaped this trend and has felt its effects.

The Jacket Journal staff is funded by advertisements and if there aren’t funds the number of hours staff can work is severely limited. Thus, the number of papers the Journal can produce is also limited because producing a paper takes time. This is the dilemma the Journal faces.

Mary Caton-Rosser, the Journal’s campus advisor said, “The only way we pay our students is from ad and fundraising revenue. The catch twenty-two is that to put together, like if we did every other week, think of all the hours that accumulates. So it’s not as much paying for the print, but putting in the time to do the print and trying to have a decent budget that supports the wages.”

Not being able to get as many ads has influenced the number of hard copies the Journal puts out a semester compared to previous years.

“I want to say it was every two weeks, if not once a month. It seems like it was pretty frequent.” Tom Wheaton said speaking about how often the Today paper was produced. Wheaton worked for the paper as the Student Sports Information Director in the mid 1980’s.
Devin Lynn the previous Editor-in-Chief for the 2012-2013 year spoke about the number of copies a semester in recent years, “We produced three papers a semester. I wanted to produce as much as possible while staying in the operational budget and balancing an increased online presence.”

With the downturn of advertisements the Journal has gotten creative to pay the hardworking staff. In 2010, the Journal started fundraising, and it continues to this day. Whether through a carwash, bake sale, or raffle the Journal has been determined to give the staff enough hours to keep producing papers.

Newspapers across the world are developing an online presence, and the Jacket Journal is no exception. BHSUMedia.com has become vital to the Jacket Journal. Not only because people are finding news online more often, but also because a growing source of income is online advertisement. Businesses are becoming more willing to advertise online on BHSUMedia.com.