The Delta Statement, a student newspaper that has existed since 1931, is on the chopping block along with several Journalism courses at the Mississippian college, Delta State University (DSU).
In response to the school’s decision to discontinue the 83-year-old paper the Mississippi Press Association (MPA), led by president Joel McNeese, sent a letter to DSU President William LaForge expressing the board’s belief that the decision to discontinue Journalism programs “fundamentally inhibits First Amendment rights” of everyone associated at the school and sets a “terrible and disheartening precedent for a well-informed student body.”
The letter also cited a survey from 2013 conducted by the American Opinion Research of Princeton, NJ. The survey found that newspapers are the number one source of news and information for most Mississippians; nearly 1.5 million Mississippians that McNeese and the rest of the MPA believes cherish papers like The Delta State Statement as mediums for the exchange of ideas and information.
Layne Bruce, the Secretary & Executive Director of the Mississippi Press Association agrees with his colleague McNeese that The Delta Statement deserves to continue to record the history and achievements of DSU, that the paper is a fine example of student-led Journalism, and that eliminating the paper would severely damage the free-flow of information and exchange of ideas in the student body.
“Clearly we’re not in a world where print newspapers are the only method of communication any longer,” Bruce said. “But there’s no doubt in our mind that the loss of that newspaper on campus is a negative development and one that does impact freedom of information and freedom of speech.”
Bruce and the rest of the MPA also don’t believe that Delta State’s budget will even be truly affected by cutting The Statement.
“The budget line for the printed newspaper is only like $6,000 for an academic year, so we feel like in the long run that’s not saving the University any money because it’s paying for itself in advertising,” Bruce said. “We just don’t really see the wisdom in eliminating the printed newspaper product. It just does not represent a whole lot of savings for the university, and if the advertising is there to support it, it just does not make any sense.”
It turns out that Bruce and the MPA aren’t the only ones to make this observation. In another letter written by members of the Southeast Journalism Conference (SEJC) to Dr. James Borsig, interim commission of the State Institutions of Higher Learning, the SEJC mentions that in the general newspaper industry 75-90 percent of advertising revenue still comes from the print editions. In the case of the Delta Statement, 100 percent of advertising revenue comes from the print edition generating approximately $8,000. The letter adamantly made the point that, contrary to DSU President LaForge’s beliefs, advertising revenue made by The Delta Statement would not simply transfer to the online counterpart after the print version had been discontinued.
Layne Bruce admits that the size of Delta State’s Journalism program is not gigantic but further evidence from the SEJC suggests that if the 20 journalism majors at DSU are forced to transfer to other schools because they do not want change their majors, it would represent a loss of more than $120,000 in tuition and fees for DSU anyway.
“The University has had a very small journalism program there were not a whole lot of majors in the program,” Bruce said, “but the point of our association [the MPA] would be the elimination of the printed newspaper product and essentially the journalism program itself is such a small piece of the puzzle at delta state that it’s essentially a drop in the bucket and there are other avenues for being able to continue financing with the newspaper itself.”
According to the SEJC the Delta State’s print version of The Delta Statement has the chops to actually generate money for the school and that killing the print edition will actually “exacerbate the budget deficit President LaForge cited as justification for killing the 83-year-old newspaper.” The SEJC also mentioned that Delta State University and the entire surrounding region has produced “legendary journalists” like Ida B. Wells and Hodding Carter and that it would be wrong to throw the printed Delta Statement away in the “misguided belief” that doing so would save a few dollars.
Layne Bruce of the Mississippi Press Association believes in an even more primal reason to keep the Statement alive.
“It’s good for anybody to have a healthy curiosity about the world around them,” Bruce said. “I think a student newspapers a great laboratory for that.”
