While mainstream newspapers face dwindling circulation and shrinking ad revenue, college papers have become hot commodities. Driven by research showing that about 76% of the 6 million full-time U.S.
undergrads read their campus papers at least occasionally, big corporations and advertisers are latching on to the student-run publications. One notable example came in late summer, when a subsidiary
of MTV bought College Publisher, a company that runs Web sites for about 450 college papers. Indeed, so good are the prospects for the student-run newspaper at Florida State University,
FSView &
Florida Flambeau, that it was acquired in August by a mainstream newspaper, the
Tallahassee Democrat.
"There's no more local paper than a campus paper," says Dina Pradel,
general manager of Y2M, which founded College Publisher in 1999. She adds that while large urban newspapers try to woo younger readers, college papers already have that audience ready-made.
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