Local businesses are not the only ones feeling the weight of the economy bearing down on them - some campus publications are taking a hit too. Some university magazines, whose main source of funding is advertising, are being forced to choose between printing fewer copies or cutting out pages to save money, while others are waiting for the financial problems to pile up.
Senior Erica Nardello, co-director of advertising of UDress magazine, said cutting back on expenses was a challenge for the magazine this semester. UDress is a student-run fashion publication that was founded in 2006 and publishes one issue per semester. The magazine has expanded rapidly, so accommodating its growth on a small budget has been difficult, she said.
"This semester we wanted to make sure that as much of the content of the magazine as possible was preserved despite cutting back on expenses," Nardello said. "We were thinking about cutting pages because that would save money, but we felt that wasn't best for the magazine."
Finding businesses willing to advertise when they themselves cannot always afford it has been the biggest problem for UDress, she said.
"It's been difficult," Nardello said. "People with whom we have good relationships have backed out because they simply can't afford it. We want to make sure it's mutually beneficial, but at the same time we have to publish."
She said advertising is crucial for the growing magazine, which receives little funding from the university and depends mostly on advertisers in Newark and Wilmington. Money from advertising pays for events that attract businesses, and this semester the magazine has had to spend less on these events, she said.
"The more money we can bring in, the more fun we can have with events for our advertisers, the happier they will be and more likely they'll be able to stay," Nardello said.
Senior Erin Sullivan, co-director of advertising at the magazine, said loss in funding from advertising caused the decrease in the number of issues printed this semester.
"We've lost at least three advertisers this semester, maybe more," Sullivan said. "We have to be sure that the publications we do produce are getting distributed really well. We have to look at what we're spending and how we're spending it."
Less funding for magazines raises an important question for the future: whether the magazine should print fewer copies or fewer pages.
Junior Jessica Lapidos, editor in chief of UDress, said it was a challenge to print the same amount of pages on a smaller budget.
"It's been a little tricky," Lapidos said. "We're still at our usual 48 pages, but we had a scare."
Sullivan said the choice to cut production instead of compromise the quality of the magazine was the best choice for the publication.
"We still wanted our editorial to be strong," she said.
DEconstruction Magazine, a student-run magazine founded in 2002, also faced the challenge of combining a growing publication with a shrinking budget. The publication features articles concerning culture, politics and student life. Junior Danielle Pro, the current treasurer and one of next year's co-editors in cheif of the magazine, said DEconstruction received less funding from the university this year than last year.
"We're only getting bigger as we go," Pro said. "My fear is that if we don't find a way to make more money, we're going to have to decrease distribution numbers."
The bigger the magazine issue, the more expensive it is to print, so less issues can be printed, bringing circulation down, she said. Because the magazine is expanding, there is concern the funding it receives from the university will become insufficient in the future, she said.
"In the future, we're going to have to rely on advertising," Pro said. "I think as a whole, it shows that with publications, you have to move from the university sponsoring you into being independent with your money."
She said the magazine had to make wiser decisions regarding distribution this semester since fewer copies were printed to accommodate the smaller budget. Preserving content is more important than quantity, she said.
"You don't want to regress in your magazine," Pro said. "You want it to only get better. But if nothing changes with the money situation, we will need to figure something out to get more money."
Other campus publications have not been hit by the economic situation. Caesura, a student literary magazine featuring poetry, short fiction and creative non-fiction, is funded by the English department.
Senior Alexa Mantell, editor in chief of Caesura, said the magazine has not had to cut any expenses this semester because of the economy.
"The magazine may not be directly affected by the economic situation, but it is getting affected by what goes on in the English department," Mantell said.
The Main Street Journal, which was founded last spring and publishes works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and art, is also university-funded. It looks to advertising for more money.
Senior David Brown, editor in chief of The Main Street Journal, said the publication has been growing successfully. The economy has not posed a problem to the journal's success, he said.
"We didn't have a problem finding advertisers and because we're funded by the university we didn't have to make any cuts," Brown said.
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