What if today, when you walked past your school paper's newsstands, all of them were empty? And what if there were no more editions - not just today or tomorrow, but forever?
Students at the Mississippi University for Women may soon find themselves in a similar plight after MUW faculty decided to move its student newspaper, The Spectator, exclusively online and discontinue its print edition.
As journalists who work with a print publication and a corresponding Web site every day, we agree with incoming Spectator editor-in-chief Sarah Wilson that moving a print newspaper exclusively online is a terrible move. Many internationally acclaimed journalism experts - including our very own Chair of Journalism Samir Husni - agree that while the Internet is certainly changing the process and purpose of print journalism, online journalism will by no means completely replace print journalism at any point in the foreseeable future.
Thus, the MUW faculty's decision to ax the print edition of The Spectator cannot represent their "vision for the future." It is instead a cowardly cop-out intended to cut costs and curtail the editorial independence of its student newspaper.
Even more disturbing than MUW's lack of foresight, however, is the fact that faculty members made the decision to move the newspaper exclusively online against the express wishes of the editorial staff of The Spectator. Such a blatant violation of student editorial independence flies in the face of the very mission and heart of journalism.