CM Life to compete for national fundraising title during 'College Media Madness'
From March 15 through April 5, Central Michigan Life will compete against more than 20 collegiate newspapers across the country to become the top fundraiser in the nation.
According to the organizers of College Media Madness, organized by Syracuse University's student media company the Daily Orange, the student news organizations will be working to see who can raise the most money, to both help their newsrooms fund journalism and earn bragging rights.
Each university will be collecting donations on the organization's fundraising pages and relaying information to the event organizers. Contest coordinators will be updating the College Media Madness rankings multiple times a day.
Both the Michigan Daily (University of Michigan) and Western Herald (Western Michigan University) are also participating in the competition. You can donate to CM Life here.
"While we wish the best of luck to our friends at the Michigan Daily and the Western Herald, we're very much preparing to be the top student media organization in the state of Michigan," Director of Student Media Dave Clark said. "We send our condolences to them in advance."
The fundraiser is focused on a fun rivalry between student news organizations during a year that has been busy and stressful, Clark said.
In many communities, student-run outlets are the primary source of news about their universities for their campuses and towns, a College Media Madness press release stated.
"College journalism fills a void left by the closure of professional newsrooms across the country, one that has rapidly accelerated amid the COVID-19 pandemic," organizers stated. "The work can’t be done without financial support. Like many newsrooms, student outlets aren’t immune to the immense challenges businesses are facing."
COVID-19 has had a major affect on the university and local businesses who buy advertisements that help finance CM Life's journalism.
"As a result of this year's decline in advertising revenue, we have greatly reduced student work hours," Clark said. "More than ever, in our history, we have students who are working here, producing journalism, and really aren't getting paid for their efforts. We have been forced to reduce all of our costs."
CM Life we went from publishing a print edition twice a week to once a week. Clark said he's not sure what the future will be for print publication if there is no advertising support to offset the cost of printing the 7,000 copies of each edition. The free publication is distributed throughout campus and the Mount Pleasant community. While student prefer to get their news from email newsletters and work that is promoted on social media, off campus 7 in 10 print editions are picked up each time the newspaper is published.
"Losing the print edition would certainly affect the larger Mount Pleasant community," Clark said.
College Media Madness is not a contest that offers a grand prize to the winner. It is a way to rally support for student media to see how much support CM Life has from alumni of CM Life, but how much support they have from the entire CMU community.
"The purpose of this is to see how much support student media has on its campus, and from all of its alumni," CM Life editor-in-chief Isaac Ritchey said. "We need everyone who's ever read CM Life, ever been in CM Life, who follows us on social media. We need all CMU alumni, and all the Mount Pleasant community members, to help us out.
"We can become the top fundraiser in the nation if all of our CMU alumni support us. Maybe CM Life can be the team that brings a national championship to CMU this spring."
Competing student newspapers include:
The Crimson White (University of Alabama)
Central Michigan Life (Central Michigan University)
The Rocky Mountain Collegian (Colorado State)
The Triangle (Drexel University)
The Alligator (University of Florida)
Fourth Estate (George Mason University)
The Daily Illini (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Indiana Daily Student (Indiana University)
The Daily Iowan (University of Iowa)
The University Daily Kansan (University of Kansas)
The Diamondback (University of Maryland)
The Michigan Daily (University of Michigan)
The Maneater (University of Missouri)
The Huntington News (Northeastern University)
The Daily Emerald (University of Oregon)
The Daily Aztec (San Diego State University)
The Torch (St. John’s University)
The Stanford Daily (Stanford University)
The Daily Orange (Syracuse University)
The Cavalier Daily (University of Virginia)
The Signpost (Weber State University)
Western Herald (Western Michigan University)
The Badger-Herald (University of Wisconsin--Madison)
The Wright State Guardian (Wright State University)
