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The Lantern is projected to lose more than $150,000 this year, according to School of Communication officials. In efforts to prevent further losses, the school decided to suspend the summer printing of The Lantern.
Ray Catalino, Lantern business manager, disagrees with the school and said cutting the summer edition will not save any money. He said he offered alternate ways to save money, such as only printing summer editions of The Lantern once a week instead of twice.
The Lantern's advertising department has experienced losses due to Web sites such as craigslist.org, which offer users the opportunity to place classifieds online at no cost, Catalino said.
"We start every fiscal year with a deficit and climb out of it," he said. "The summer paper breaks even."
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The Lantern had a circulation of 28,000 two years ago, but is currently distributed at a circulation of 15,000 - saving almost $25,000 annually.
Although Catalino said cutting the summer paper might save money in salaries, it could cost the paper advertising revenue during the academic year.
"It is my belief that we will lose long-term advertisers who will go elsewhere," he said.
Catalino said he thinks there are two possibilities that will result from the summer cut: producing a smaller newspaper or losing it completely.
Gerrick Lewis, Lantern editor, said the decision to cut the student newspaper was based solely on the business concerns of The Lantern.
"There is a big fear that (business office employees are) going to lose their jobs," he said. "I'm just really nervous because I don't want good people to leave because of how this will affect their salary."
The announcement came as a surprise to some, including Lantern faculty adviser Steve Wartenberg.
"I don't know why, but I was not part of the decision-making process and have not been notified by anyone in the school about any changes to the paper or the curriculum," Wartenberg said.
Dan McDonald, a professor in communication, said cutting the summer newspaper will not save money.
"(The Lantern's financial situation) is a bigger problem than what summer (cuts) will deal with," he said.
In addition to the financial loss, officials said there have been problems getting students to enroll in Communication 423, The Lantern practicum, over the summer. The agreement they came to was to cut the print version of The Lantern.
"This is all part of a big push to make The Lantern better," said Carroll Glynn, director of the School of Communication. "We want our product to be good, so we're focusing on the academic year."
Plans to change the journalism curriculum have not been made. The Lantern practicum class will still be offered in the summer quarter, Glynn said. However, plans to put student stories on The Lantern's Web site have not been finalized.
The administration is looking at future plans for the student newspaper. "Because it is a college newspaper, there is more freedom to experiment with changes and not be detrimental to the success of the paper," McDonald said.
"We're making a lot of changes," McDonald said. "I think the paper will be much stronger because we'll have a different class of students involved (and it will be) financially stable and more professional. This will be the start of a revitalized paper."
Amanda Dolasinski can be reached at dolasinski.1@osu.edu.
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