The Daily Collegian, a Penn State student-run news outlet, will lose all of its direct funding from the university in 2024-25, after seeing that support cut in half this fiscal year.
The cuts are part of the budgets recently approved by Penn State trustees.
“It was definitely, definitely a shock. Pretty disappointing. You don't want to see things go this way,” said Nick Stonesifer, the Collegian's editor-in-chief and a senior studying telecommunications.
Stonesifer said operations for this year will not be impacted. For the long-term, the newspaper's leadership is working with the Collegian’s alumni interest group to create an endowment plan. The Collegian is also considering a donation drive and looking into other funding avenues, such as grants and the student fee.
“You look at the response from people all over, 30 years, 40 years removed from the university, and they're up in arms about it. It just goes to show that this paper means a lot to so many people,” Stonesifer said.
The Collegian’s general manager, Wayne Lowman, does not expect to stop printing the paper.
“When we do our financial analysis, print is still profitable for us. It's not like we're losing money,” Lowman said.
A Penn State spokesperson said the university gave the Collegian "ample notice of these pending changes."
According to the spokesperson, the university still supports the Collegian and that it will become part of a “news consortium” with other student media outlets, including The Lion 90.7 FM, CommRadio, The Centre County Report and PSNtv. According to the university, the goal of the consortium is to create a more sustainable and permanent funding model. This consortium will receive university funding.
“The planned funding model will align Penn State with many other universities, cement student news operations as an essential part of student life at the university and encourage more collaboration among student media organizations,” a Penn State spokesperson said in an email.
The university said more information on the consortium will be shared as the plan progresses.
