COLUMN: Pressing the student press

From Michael Mugmon's, "The Way It Is," Fall '98 From Michael Mugmon's, "The Way It Is," Fall '98Outside of a hotly contested college wrestling match, one rarely pairs the state of Iowa and incidents of confrontation in the same sentence. With cornfields that call forth images of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson racing through Ray Kinsella's outfield, the Hawkeye State simply doesn't evoke a sense of struggle. This media war is playing out in Ames, a college town that's home to Iowa State University and to a substantial permanent population. While Iowa State students publish the 14,000-free-circulation Iowa State Daily, media conglomerate Partnership Press puts out the 9,500-circulation Ames Daily Tribune. And in the mind of Michael Gartner, chairperson of Partnership Press and editor of the Tribune, there's not enough newsprint in Ames for both dailies. The Pulitzer Prize winner and former chief of NBC News charges that because Iowa State receives funding from the state government, the Iowa State Daily is an arm of the government. Consequently, Gartner argues, the student newspaper violates Iowa's unfair competition law -- legislation that bans government agencies from competing directly with private businesses. In an effort to prove that the paper is government-supported, Gartner's Partnership Press filed and won a March 1997 lawsuit against the Iowa State Daily to gain open access to its financial and advertising records. But Gartner didn't stop there. Although Iowa State is free to distribute its paper throughout Ames, the university prohibits "non-university" newspapers such as the Tribune from being distributed on campus. Thus, Gartner's most recent suit, filed in federal court, claims that the university regulation violates Partnership Press' First Amendment rights. As he frames it, the whole matter essentially boils down to the question of whether the court considers the student newspaper a government entity or an independent organization. According to Iowa State Daily Editor-in-Chief Keesia Wirt, the student newspaper has complete control of its editorial content but it relies on $70,000 in student fees from the university. The barrage of lawsuits against the Iowa State Daily thinly veils Gartner's economic motives. Simply put, he filed suit because the student paper is undercutting the Tribune's advertising revenues. Over the past five years, the Iowa State Daily, with the help of a full-time professional general manager, has made a complete financial turnaround. The student newspaper has gone from an annual loss of $140,000 to a yearly profit of $1.5 million -- numbers that hurt the Tribune and prompted Gartner to claim that the paper is a state-backed business rather than an educational experience. From a purely emotional standpoint, it's hard not to side with the student-run Iowa State Daily -- the proverbial David to Partnership Press' Goliath. But, unfortunately, heartstrings alone don't win court cases. On one count, Gartner has a valid First Amendment complaint. Iowa State should relax its rule prohibiting the distribution of "non-university" newspapers on campus. After all, the student publication is free, whereas readers must pay for a copy of the Tribune. Additionally, while there is some overlap, the Tribune primarily covers town, county and state news, while the Iowa State Daily focuses on the university community. Beyond the distribution issue, however, Gartner's arguments fizzle. Perhaps, as 46 college newspaper editors suggested in an October 1996 letter to Gartner, Partnership Press should focus on improving its coverage instead of trying to cut off a student paper at the knees. More concretely, population numbers hint that Ames can support two papers. According to 1996 U.S. Census figures, Ames' population hovers around 47,000. And American Demographics, a national marketing research magazine, has found that college students comprise one-third of Ames' total population. Because the circulation of the Iowa State Daily virtually equals the student population, the data begs the question of why the papers can't co-exist with natural competition. Why hasn't Partnership Press successfully marketed the Tribune to advertisers and to area residents? The bottom line is that Gartner is lashing out at a student publication to compensate for his failure to carve out a niche for the Tribune in and around Ames. With a staff of professional journalists and monetary support from Partnership Press, the Tribune already has a natural advantage over the Iowa State Daily. By attempting to cripple the student publication, the professional paper is threatening to take away an educational experience. And in doing so, the Tribune may limit the pool of potential journalists from which to draw its future staff.