Penn State University's president promotes newspapers to students

Newspaper Research Journal, Summer 1999 by Hartman, John K

Research conducted in September 1997 by Moore found the Daily Collegian was read "often or daily" by 64 percent of the 672 University Park students responding, while USA Today was read by 38 percent, the New York Times, by 18 percent, and the Centre Daily Times by 16 percent. This shows a small decline in the readership of the student newspaper from 69 percent in spring 1997, and increases in the readership of USA Today, 4 percent; the New York Times, 8 percent; and the Centre Daily Times, 3 percent. The latter figures are skewed by the fact that the latter two papers were made widely available in three dormitories in the spring while USA Today was not. Most importantly for the newspaper industry, roughly five times more students were regularly reading daily newspapers in the fall than in the spring. Removing the three experimental dorm situations, there would probably be six to seven times more dorm-dwelling students reading daily newspapers in fall 1997 than a year before.25

Bill Mahon, Penn State's director of public information, said that a study done in the first week of November 1997 found that nearly 40,000 papers were picked up each week by students on the University Park campus. He reported that 14,200 copies of USA Today were taken, followed by 11,000 copies of the Daily Collegian (noting that thousands of other copies of the student newspaper are picked up for free elsewhere on campus), 7,500 of the Centre Daily Times; and 6,800 of New York Times. Dividing each of the preceding numbers by five would result in average daily distribution of, 2,840,2,200,1,500, and 1,360, respectively.26

William Pollak, executive vice president of circulation of the New York Times, said that about 2,500 copies of his newspaper were being made available on the University Park campus and about 90 percent were being picked up by students and that the number made available had gone up by more than 500 since the beginning of the semester. He said that the Times sells 100,000 copies a day on college campuses and was selling 950 daily at Penn State before the program began. It is now selling 450 daily, which, added to the papers it is distributing in the dailies-in-dorms program, resulted in a net gain of 1,500 to 2,000 students regularly reading the Times. He said the high level of interest that Penn State students were displaying confirmed his belief that the Times had a significant appeal to young adults and that students will read newspapers if made easily available and if they are shown the benefits of newspapers. He said the Penn State program creates a model that should be implemented around the country and that the university has dealt effectively with all the issues that might prevent such a program. He noted that for decades West Point Military Academy has required all its students to read the Times and that Tufts University has instituted a program to make the New York Times widely available to its students. Pollak said he believed that a national implementation of the Penn State program is the "most important thing" newspapers can do to reverse the decline in readership among young adults."