Big Media on Campus

BIG MEDIA ON CAMPUS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Emily Steel emily.steel@wsj.com ]
It's not breaking news that the newspaper industry is losing the attention of young readers. But one sector of the industry is defying the trend: college papers. Hip, local, relevant and generated by students themselves, college newspapers have held steady readership in recent years while newspapers in general have seen theirs shrink. Big advertisers are going on campus to reach these young readers. Ford Motor Co., Microsoft Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have all placed recent ads in college newspapers. Now, media giants are jumping in. Last week, Gannett's Tallahassee Democrat acquired Florida State University's FSView & Florida Flambeau, one of the nation's few for-profit college newspapers. The same day, Viacom's MTV, which already runs a network targeted at college campuses called mtvU, agreed to buy Y2M: Youth Media & Marketing Networks, a company that hosts the Web sites for 450 campus papers. MTV executives hope the deal will give mtvU credibility in the college community, providing its advertisers with easy access to college students.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115509164245730752.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
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