Can the campus paper keep up with the blog?
When Columbia’s dean of the School of General Studies, Peter Awn, announced on March 9 that his school’s diplomas would remain in English, the Columbia Spectator published a standard article reporting the news.
A day later, www.Bwog.net, Columbia’s popular student news blog, reported that the dean “took a break from being totally awesome to let down GS students easily.” Bwog’s post included a link to other articles about Awn, a picture of the diploma in question, and the full text of Awn’s email announcement. With its lighter tone and focus on local issues, Bwog boasts a loyal readership and has been drawing readers away from the Spectator, Columbia’s official campus paper since 1877.
Some students have stayed loyal to the Spectator, contending that its history gives it a prestige that Bwog—founded in 2006—does not have. Spectator Editor-in-Chief Ben Cotton defended his paper on the grounds that it has retained a commitment to serious journalism, something Bwog does not prioritize.
“I think the type of comprehensive coverage we do is still appealing to students,” Cotton wrote to New Voices. “It is important that we recognize that we have to be accountable to readers.”
But Bwog Staff Writer Nikhita Mahtani says that part of being accountable to students is writing in an accessible style. “[The Spectator] is definitely very informative, but, personally, I feel like it tries very hard to be professional,” she wrote. “Bwog is slightly snarky and written in a more conversational style, so I feel like it helps get the point across better.”
Bwog Editor-in-Chief Eliza Shapiro added that the blog’s focus on the details of campus life adds to its popularity, as it covers “the most minute, seemingly trivial elements that people actually care enormously about,” she wrote.
Bwog’s growing popularity has forced the Spectator to redouble its online efforts. Cotton hopes to do this without compromising the paper’s journalistic standards and has begun an initiative to get content onto the paper’s site faster.
“A newspaper is obviously at a disadvantage as compared to an online-only news source,” he wrote. “We want to appeal to as many readers as possible, of course without sacrificing the quality of our work.”
In an attempt to beat Bwog at its own game, this month the Spectator launched Spectrum, the paper’s official blog. While Cotton insists that Spectrum was not created in response to Bwog, its goals are similar. A letter from Cotton and a managing editor said that Spectrum is committed to “telling stories in a way that’s fun to read.” On www.columbiaspectator.com, wrote Cotton, “online readers [have] one place where we can play up our best newspaper content and also provide fun stuff.”
Some Bwoggers remain skeptical of Spectrum. In the past, claims James Downie, a former Bwog editor in chief, the Spectator viewed blogs as “a side project, not worthy of many resources or, in particular, breaking news, [which] allowed Bwog to carve out a niche.” And though Downie now sees Spectrum as Bwog’s chief competition, he notes that there is “at least a little copying going on.”
Just as Spectrum is the blog of the Spectator, Bwog is an outgrowth of the Blue and White, Columbia’s features magazine, “which has a lot of these random [and] mundane things, as well,” Mahtani wrote.
Others from Bwog’s staff also look to the Blue and White as an example. Downie says that the magazine “provides a grounding for the blog and its staff” and “gives the blog a tradition to draw on.”
Downie also dismissed the idea that the Spectator has better-quality writing because it is a formal newspaper, and he said that there is a place for both on Columbia’s campus. Bwog boasts a readership of over 200,000 monthly visits; New Voices has been unable to acquire comparable stats for the Spectator, though the newspaper prints 5,000 print copies each weekday.
“I think Bwog’s growth in readership is a testament to the quality of the writing,” Downie said. “Bwog’s growth in readership among students speaks to what readers think of the two outlets.”
Both publications have cash flow problems. Bwog subsists on loans from its staff and is now trying to generate revenue through advertising—which is also the Spectator’s main revenue source. It has not, however, proved fruitful for either publication.
“Ad sales are down, as they are industry-wide,” wrote Cotton, the Spectator’s editor in chief. He remains confident, however, that the Spectator can “move forward from the recent economic downturn.”
But while Shapiro, Bwog’s editor in chief, said that “journalism is having a convulsing moment where no one knows what the future is,” Cotton has confidence in his paper’s vitality.
“I think our institutional strength is unparalleled,” he wrote. “College newspapers occupy a niche market that isn’t going away.”
Carly Silver is a staff writer for New Voices, and a staff writer for the Columbia Spectator.
