College media generally lends itself to a precarious position within the greater scheme of modern journalism. Your average college newsroom is a place of learning. Young people with little to no experience in the tools journalism requires are able to hone these talents into marketable skills that, at least in theory, should be able to assist these young journos in finding a place in an increasingly shrinking marketplace.
But besides the educational aspects of the average campus newspaper, editorial staff are afforded significant liberties in what they are able to say and the repercussions they may very well encounter as a result of this freedom. So long as no one is libeled, deliberate personal attacks are avoided and incitement to crime or violence is shunned, publications at this level are relatively free to do as they please without fear of their funding being cut, the presses shut down or their positions eliminated.
In the real world however, none of these luxuries are present and editorial staff are forced to thoroughly appraise every position they take and how it may relate to the viability of the publication’s business model. Whether journalists like to admit it or not, the fact is the golden days of traditional journalism are long gone and superior content alone cannot keep a publication afloat. Advertisers and their faith in such publications are all that maintain the fourth estate. But when an editor chooses to criticize this foundation and its practices, the result, not surprisingly, is swift action on the part of more senior staff.
Autumn Drussell was appointed editor of the Stoughton Courier Hub, a weekly publication, in May 2010. In a city the size of Stoughton, around 13,000, publications already struggle to make ends meet with small staffs. On top of that, they are forced to be extremely conscious of the health of the local businesses that support them. But when Drussell made the decision to opine on her own personal decisions to shop in larger “big box” stores to save money, while criticizing area business of their need to improve service and cater to the tighter spending habits of the average Stoughton resident, she, perhaps unwittingly, played a part in highlighting the chilling effect caused by a reliance on an advertising foundation equally pressed for financial stability.
Area businesses struck back. At least one advertiser claimed he would cease to continue advertising given the nature of the economy and his own financial needs. The foundation appeared to be cracking and the house built on it, in the minds of those responsible for its care at least, had to give way.
Only a matter of days later, to atone for her sins against this journalistic model, Drussell was demoted and told not to write any opinion pieces for 90 days. She has recently filed a discrimination complaint, demanding her job back and questioning why the male supervisor who approved her piece was promoted to her position rather than suffering similar punishment. The paper then published an editorial sometime after urging its readers to buy local, a conciliatory gesture to be sure, but perhaps even more than that, a white flag.
And while Drussell’s decision to take a few jabs at local businesses is perhaps ill-advised in the dangers it could pose to the publication’s financial base, her intent was ostensibly pure. Small business owners and the average citizen alike have been forced to tighten their belts; to advocate pinching pennies and seeking better customer service or product selection is not out of line in any sense of the term. It may ruffle some feathers, but on the whole, its common sense.
Ideally, the model that is able to support college newspapers could be implemented in other similar-sized publications such as the Stoughton Courier Hub. But like much of everything in college, very little on campus is reminiscent of reality’s demands and responsibilities.
There is no clear-cut answer to this dilemma facing Drussell. Perhaps her criticism was poorly judged given the publication’s reliance on area businesses, but the larger issue of journalistic independence being at risk should be of paramount concern to anyone who considers freedom of speech and a free press central to our society.
Drussell’s demotion is an unfortunate decision for her supervisors to have to make, and whether or not the sex of her replacement was a determining factor in the move, it speaks volumes about the current state of journalism and the paranoia likely faced by those who consider it a calling. Journalists ought to be able to be fearless in their craft and work without the worry of their editorial independence being pulled from beneath them, but in this economy nothing comes free. Few however expected speech to be at such a premium as well.
Jake Begun ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in journalism.
