The upcoming school year will see The Chronicle adopting a digital-first strategy, uploading content to its website five days a week and putting out a print edition Monday through Thursday.
After months of deliberation, the paper’s thirteen-member board—composed primarily of Chronicle alumni—decided to make the change in June in order to better meet the evolving needs and habits of its readers and provide a more dynamic and well-rounded product. The student staff was also highly involved in the decision, emphasizing its desire to focus more of its time and efforts on a digital product. On Fridays, content will be published online only.
“We’re still a daily production,” said junior Danielle Muoio, editor of The Chronicle. “Going forward, we’re just continuing to reach our goal of getting stories to our readers in the most efficient way…we’re really focusing on our online presence because it’s the best way to get information to the most people. It doesn’t mean stopping the thoughtful effort we put into print.”
Special daily pages will be added to the print product—Tuesdays will feature coverage of graduate and professional schools and Wednesdays will feature stories regarding the Duke University Health System. Sportswrap, the athletics supplement, will continue to run on Mondays and Recess, the arts supplement, on Thursday.
The Chronicle will also make greater use of multimedia as supplements to news content as well as stand-alone material, Muoio said.
“We’re cutting the Friday print edition, but I do think that readers are going to enjoy what they see on Fridays as well as over the weekend,” Muoio said, adding that the paper will begin regularly updating its website on weekends and adopting a 24-hour news cycle.
Board members noted that the change will free up the staff’s resources and time, allowing the focus to be more on the paper’s content than on its layout and other intricacies associated with daily print production. By shifting the paper’s emphasis to its Internet presence, staffers will be better equipped to provide around-the-clock news to the Duke community.
“People aren’t waiting for the next day to get the news,” said David Graham, Trinity ’09 and vice-chair of the board. “It’s not enough for The Chronicle to wait 24 hours and get those stories up later on, we have to be publishing things when they happen.”
Muoio added that the change will allow for the paper’s print publication to be made more engaging and relevant, presenting a higher concentration of analytical pieces and feature stories.
“We want to revise what goes into our print edition,” she said. “We’ll be packaging stories in a visual, captivating way to fit the reader experience.”
Board members said that although finances were considered in the decision, they were not the driving force. The Chronicle has not been entirely immune to the financial issues that have affected the print media industry, but the paper—which has been both financially and editorially independent from the University since 1993—has maintained significant reserve funds. Although the paper could continue to afford a daily print schedule on that money alone, it was ultimately decided that cutting a day of print would lead to a stronger publication that could better serve its readers, said board member Karen Blumenthal, Trinity ’81.
“The process was about taking the best next step for The Chronicle, regardless of funds,” said Chrissy Beck, general manager of The Chronicle. “It’s not about cutting, but investing for the future.”
Board members described the decision as a move to innovate and lead the paper into the digital age by choice, as opposed to eventually being forced to react to unwanted financial pressure.
“We’re doing something smart before our hand was forced,” Graham said. “We’re moving forward with what we were hearing from staff… this is something that they wanted to do. The opinion was that it was something we needed to do to move to a better digital format faster.”
The perspective of the student staff and young Chronicle alumni was one of the motivating factors behind the decision, said board members.
“Our decision was heavily influenced by the opinions of the student staff and recent alumni, who said that this is really time to make this change,” said Elizabeth Morgan, Trinity ’90 and chair of the board. “Moving from five days a week to four days a week makes a lot of sense. It will allow us to devote more resources to digital.”
The Chronicle is not alone in its decision to deemphasize its print presence in favor of the digital product—Syracuse University’s The Daily Orange and The University of California, Berkeley’s The Daily Californian have made similar moves in recent years. Other independent college papers have gone to printing once or twice a week, and still others have become entirely Internet-based.
“The college paper is definitely print-and-digital or all-digital now,” said Rick Edmonds, media business analyst for the non-profit journalism school The Poynter Institute. “It’s targeted to an audience that’s by definition pretty young and on digital platforms.”
Beck noted that the perspective of advertisers had also been considered, saying that the switch would not significantly affect advertiser stability. The paper will continue to print 12,000 copies each day it is published and distribute them to over 200 locations, the same figures as before, she said.
“We’re extremely excited about this change,” Morgan said. “It’s something that’s going to be very positive for The Chronicle. It isn’t about printing four or five days a week, it’s really about a robust digital-first strategy that meets the needs of readers.”
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