In an effort to streamline publication, editors of the Guardian have approved changes to the paper’s constitution, including the addition of a Business Oversight Committee.
The Guardian Executive Board voted 17-0-0 in favor of the amendments at a Feb. 21 meeting. Voting members included all editors and the paper’s business manager, a university career employee. Among other duties, the board is vested by the paper’s constitution with authority to set paper operating policies.
“The reasons behind the changes are to make the goals of the editorial and business as one,” Editor in Chief Clayton Worfolk said. “Changes such as the Business Oversight Committee are the first step toward doing that.”
The committee will provide “official oversight, supervision and governance of the business department,” according to the new amendments. Virtually every business aspect will be supervised by the committee, including ratifying the newspaper’s annual budget, determining the size and structure of the business department and working with the business manager to set advertising sales goals.
Approved amendments to the constitution set the membership of the Business Oversight Committee to include the Guardian editor in chief, managing editors, business manager and an administrator from the university’s Student Life business office. The editor in chief may also move to add members to the committee with approval by a majority vote of the Executive Board.
The changes also removed the business manager from the Executive Board.
Previously, the business manager alone was responsible for making staff employment decisions as well as handling advertising administration. Both of those tasks will be shared with the Business Oversight Committee under the updated constitution. All voting members on the committee will be students, except the business manager.
The structure of the committee could be successful, according to Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Joseph W. Watson. While student-operated and self-supporting, the paper is an administrative unit within Watson’s department.
“Businesses should be very much a learning experience for students, so they’re never going to run as efficiently as nonstudent-run businesses, but that’s not saying all nonstudent-run businesses run very well,” he said. “But I think in the experience of UCSD, situations allowing students to be involved with business sides [have] served as a good learning experience and allowed the business to function quite effectively in terms of providing a service and remaining financially viable. It’s my hope that the Guardian is able to achieve both.”
Changes to the Guardian financial structure were suggested in the hope of boosting ailing finances, which have forced the newspaper to publish smaller issues, Worfolk said.
“The newspaper has dropped in page numbers as a reflection of our budget,” he said. “We hope that an entity such as the Business Oversight Committee will allow us to maximize what we want this paper to be.”
According to its annual financial reports, revenues of the newspaper have dropped over the past four years, causing it to lose almost $60,000 last year.
The Guardian is funded by advertising, which students often misunderstand, according to Advertising Director Michael Foulks, a university career employee.
“We receive no aid from A.S. or the university,” he said.
In order to maintain a fiscally sustainable balance of content, the publication has created a 50-percent split between advertising and editorial space, Foulks said. However, due to heavy advertising competition from other bodies, the Guardian has suffered financial losses, which has created less room for editorial content.
“An ideal situation would be with the Guardian being the show and being all there is,” Foulks said. “But with every week, it seems that there are more and more entities where people on campus and merchants can direct their advertising money.”
While revenues have been declining, the situation is hopeful, Foulks said.
“I’ve been around this place for a while and things usually ebb and flow,” he said. “The economy always goes up and down, which kind of reflects the newspaper. … Now we’re in a bit of a down period.”
However, a lack of communication has posed a problem for the paper, said Assistant Business Manager Emilee Schumer, a student.
“The financial side and editorial side of the Guardian have been very separate,” she said. “Operating that way has not been very beneficial.”
Although the new Business Oversight Committee will serve as a conduit between the student-run editorial and mostly adult-operated business parts of the paper, the areas will remain divided, Worfolk said.
“Now there will be a line of connection between the goals of the Executive Board and business staff,” he said. “There has always been a wall between the two, and we realize now that the two need to be interrelated. This board is a unifying element, but we recognize that the wall between the two sides is still important.”
The new policies require the committee to communicate regularly with the Executive Board and “alert the board to all unexpected changes to the fiscal health of the paper.”
