A plan to revitalize UCLA’s struggling newsmagazines by increasing funding, creating a training program and hiring paid advisers was passed by a Communications Board subcommittee on Wednesday.
This proposal, which acknowledges the lack of consistency in newsmagazine publications, will attempt to create an infrastructure that can maintain sufficient profits and training programs to keep the newsmagazines in print.
“We know there is a high concern for diversity on the campus, and people are very interested in the points of view that emerge from having these various publications,” said Saul Sarabia, a member of the Communications Board and presenter of the revitalization plan.
Sarabia pointed out the lack of continuity in training for newsmagazine staff members and said that a successful publication needs more than just writers.
“It takes knowing how to do specific types of public relations and fundraisers. … We as a department can provide that without students having to reinvent (training) each year,” Sarabia said.
The editors and contributors of nearly all of the newsmagazines attended the meeting to show support for the proposal that would extend a lifeline to the faltering publications.
“I think that we need more support. There’s no training on editing, designing, getting and training staff. How can you publish a magazine when it’s only one or two people?” said Brenda Yancor, co-editor of La Gente de Aztlan in an earlier interview.
Kirsten Ferreri, the assistant editor of Ha’Am, a Jewish publication, expressed concern that when she came on staff with the magazine, it had not published in nearly a year.
“There was such a fabulous quality that these magazines enjoyed while they had the benefits of an adviser and advertising training,” she said. “Right now all of our business training is on the spot. None of us have ever been trained.”
The plan directly connects the lack of a finished product with the lack of resources, but Mussarat Bata, an undergraduate member of the Communications Board, suggested that the correlation might not be so simple.
“My concern is that the potential to publish is there whether you have stipend, an office or anything,” Bata said.
While she did not oppose the proposal, Bata indicated that funding is not always a problem for students who are dedicated to the success of a publication.
“The fact that everyone in this room is telling me that they are not publishing because they are not getting stipends is something that dissatisfies the undergraduates on the board. We see people who publish with no resources,” Bata added.
She also expressed her reservations that the plan might be overly ambitious given the current resources of the board.
The goal of the proposal is to raise between $99,000 and $160,000 by selling more advertising, increasing alumni contributions and locating any available Associated Students UCLA funding.
If Student Media is able to successfully raise the funds outlined in the proposal, nearly half of it will go toward hiring a full-time adviser who could directly oversee the production process of only the newsmagazines. Currently, there is only one adviser overseeing the entirety of Student Media, including the Daily Bruin.