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But if they did more stories it would make the paper more than 4 pages, therefore causing the need for a second sheet of paper, doubling production costs.

not to mention more loss of trees in the eco system.....

amen - the DCneeds help

but for a paper runby a bunch of RAs and guys who couldn't get into Phi Psi - what do you expect?

Today's paper has four columns of an AP story about Antonio Davis going into the stands, and a small story about SMU athletes having good grades.

What's wrong with that ratio?

When you have Tony Pederson as a j-prof that pretty much says it all.

Before you guys bash the paper, know that we are grossly understaffed. When you have a staff of less than 10, its a bit hard to cover every event on campus. Granted, we did have a lot of wire copy last semester, our #1 goal this semester is reducing that. We just got a new sports editor and were in a transition phase last week. Give us a break. When you have 18 hours of class and other obligations, I would say the paper is pretty good. And whoever said that we are staffed by a bunch of RA's and Phi Psi rejects, think again. In fact, there is not a single RA on staff and our staff represents at least 3 fraternities. We aren't the Dallas Morning News, we aren't USA Today, we are a bunch of students that have school, clubs and a life... consider that next time you want to bash a STUDENT newspaper.

Under 10 on the staff? When I was there, I did was on the DC staff for a year, and we had close to 40. I think I might have taken a swing at the DC before -- I take it back. Hope you get the extra staff you need. Aren't there a bunch of journalism majors at the school? If they want a job after school, they'd better have some stories to show potential employers.

40!?!? Oh, how I wish it was like that today. I would say there is a good 10 of us that are steady, hard-core staff members. Sadly, the only time the journalism students write for us is when the teachers make them do it for a grade. Another thing we are doing this semester is trying to recruit those students. But, until those journalism students start stepping up, we will continue to be understaffed. And your right, they better start writing...I sure they write for their classes and don't really care about getting things published. Although I am can't speak too much for the J-school since im not in it. It just seems like the Daily Campus is the enemy here and I don't see how that has happened.

OK, now I officially feel for you. When I worked there, we had a sports editor and an assistant sports editor, not one but two football beat writers, a men's soccer writer, a women's soccer writer, a men's basketball writer, a women's basketball writer, a beat writer for (both) swim teams, (both) tennis teams, and I think one person did the track/cross countr teams and golf, if I remember correctly (been a few years). That's 11 staff members in sports alone, and there was a constant stream of people walking in, asking "Can I cover football? Can I cover soccer? Can I cover swimming?" We turned people away, because there wasn't enough to cover in person. I was amazed when I saw the DC in early December -- I think it was eight pages. We had four to six pages of sports alone .... every day.

Do you still pay staff writers? We didn't make much, but maybe that's one way to add another writer or two.

The paper would be longer if there were more advertising...its a bad time for print advertising right now, and thats nothing the DC student staff can do.

As for the NASCAR story/photo, we ran it because of the Troy Aikman/Roger Staubach connection with Dallas and the Dallas NASCAR races, and we happened to have a file photo of Terry Labonte (a Texan) from the last Cup Race....it was better than running wire story with a wire photo on a topic that had zero SMU/Metroplex connection on the page when we were going through our sports editor tranisition

I'm not trying to start a DC pity party, but if you have that much of a beef with how we do things, by all means write a letter to the editor, we'd love to publish your letters and commentaries.

Austin Kilgore
Managing Editor
The Daily Campus

aus10fromhous10 wrote:The paper would be longer if there were more advertising...its a bad time for print advertising right now, and thats nothing the DC student staff can do.

As for the NASCAR story/photo, we ran it because of the Troy Aikman/Roger Staubach connection with Dallas and the Dallas NASCAR races, and we happened to have a file photo of Terry Labonte (a Texan) from the last Cup Race....it was better than running wire story with a wire photo on a topic that had zero SMU/Metroplex connection on the page when we were going through our sports editor tranisition

I'm not trying to start a DC pity party, but if you have that much of a beef with how we do things, by all means write a letter to the editor, we'd love to publish your letters and commentaries.

Austin Kilgore
Managing Editor
The Daily Campus

Thanks for the update, Austin, and I hope things get better at the DC. I'm still puzzled by the NASCAR story -- Aikman and Staubach aren't SMU-affialiated in anyway, right? -- but I now have a better feel for your situation. I also find it surprising that the advertisers aren't better. I know there won't be national ads, of course, but I'd think the local types (New York Subs, Flash, the banks on Hillcrest, Mustang Donuts .... and whatever else is over there) would be lining up to tap the market of SMU students.

Aikman/Staubach don't have an SMU connection, but they have an obvious Dallas connection. The point with the NASCAR story was to get some resemblance of original copy on the page last week. While the story was from the AP Wire, I took the photos from the Nov. race, which was the best we could throw together when we lost our sports editor.

Im sure you would like to publish peoples letters and commentaries, it would give you something to fill the paper. It sounds like the DC is understaffed which is sad, but the fact remains the paper makes little to ne effort to cover SMU topics especially sports and when it does it is EdBoard making outlandish and critical statements with no factual basis.

White Helmet wrote:Im sure you would like to publish peoples letters and commentaries, it would give you something to fill the paper. It sounds like the DC is understaffed which is sad, but the fact remains the paper makes little to ne effort to cover SMU topics especially sports and when it does it is EdBoard making outlandish and critical statements with no factual basis.

I would have to disagree with you here... We make a huge effort to cover all SMU sports. As the photo editor, I can say that last week alone I went to 4 sports events-- 3 basketball games and 1 swim meet. Thats more covereage for sports than any other section. Even though we are understaffed, there is always at least a sports picture with an extended cutline. I don't know if thats evident online, but sports pictures are always in the hard copy of the paper. Its better than not putting anything in there at all and its the best we can do at the moment until more writers come on board...(which by the way yesterday, we got an associate sports editor).

blkjack34 wrote: .... by the way yesterday, we got an associate sports editor).

Glad to hear it. Hope to see him/her at basketball games, spring football, etc.