University of Michigan - Michiganensian Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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Like any newspaper, The Michigan Daily tries to mirror the events and is- sues of the community it covers. This year, however, faced with a smaller staff and changing readership, the Daily de- cided to reduce the size of its mirror substantially and redefine some basic ideas about its role in the University community. In past years the Daily had tried to cover everything and anything. Stories from the Daily ' s two wire services were almost always played more prominently than stories by local reporters. Daily re- porters covered the city of Ann Arbor religiously, attending every city council meeting and preparing detailed analy- ses of city budgets and audits for the readers. This year the Daily eliminated nearly all coverage of the city of Ann Arbor and tried to keep national and interna- tional news to a minimum. Stories of direct interest to the University com- munity such as the city ' s rape pre- vention program-were given a promi- nent spot in the paper. But articles of little interest to most readers such as a report on a land development scheme five miles from campus did not run. Eliminating the time-consuming cov- erage of the city enabled the Daily to focus its energy on stories for its own unique readership the University community. This year was one of uncertainty for the University ' s students, faculty and staff. The state ' s declining allocation to the University caused program reduc- tions, over-crowded classes, faculty sal- ary raises that couldn ' t keep up with inflation, and sky-rocketing tuition hikes. The Daily ' s first priority this year was to give readers a complete picture of the University ' s effort to cope with its declining state aid. Students were especially concerned about threatened cuts in federal finan- cial aid, so the Daily regularly updated its readers with reports from Washing- ton on the status of grant and loan pro- grams. Another issue about which students were particularly worried was campus crimes. Every day the Daily ran a Po- lice Notes column containing short briefs on campus muggings, robberies and rapes. The Police Notes column helped create an awareness of crime among the student community. On the lighter side, the Daily created a feature staff this year to write reada- ble, entertaining stories on the Univer- sity community. The Daily ' s sports staff i ncreased its copy hole and decided to expand its coverage of intramural and club sports. The Opinion Page editors ran humorous columns and introduced a daily campus comic strip called Wea- sel to the page. The Daily lost almost its entire core of arts writers this year, and its enter- tainment coverage suffered tremen- dously. While editors attempted to train a new group of writers, the for- merly-daily arts pages dropped to only one or two per week. Although the arts staff was hit hardest by the lack of available writers, the news staff also suffered from reporter shortages. A hundred or so eager new- comers express an interest in writing for the Daily at the beginning of the semester, but few find they want to make the intense commitment needed to become a confirmed Daily-ite. The reporters that do stay, however are a dedicated crew. Last spring on April 17, two students were shot in Bursley Hall and another student was charged with two counts of first degree murder. Although many students headed for home for a short vacation before finals, Daily reporters cancelled vacation plans and headed into the Stu- dent Publications Building at 420 May- nard as soon as they heard the news. The staff worked all day and night and produced a 12-page tabloid Extra edition that covered the shootings bet- ter than any other paper. The advertis- ing staff immediately called local mer- chants and sold more than $1,000 worth of advertising to help defray the costs of printing the extra addition. The Daily business staff was faced with a particularly challenging job of keeping the paper solvent in a year of hardship for newspapers all over Michigan. The Daily is completely self- supporting, so it depends solely upon revenue from advertising. A highly mo- tivated business staff reorganized the circulation department this year, and innovated finance and sales systems. M - D. DeVries Editor-in-chief-Sara Anspach 279

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- (. HI Business Manager-Randi Cigelnik - f. Hi Chief Photographer-Paul Engstrom -D DeVries Sports Staff Writer-Martha Crall ' features 278 Daily

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280 Daily