Members of the University of Nebraska Omaha’s The Gateway newspaper team gave a presentation to our media storytelling class this past Monday on February 3rd. Those who spoke were Grant Rohan, Mars Nevada, Leta Lohrmeyer, and Kamrin Baker. They explained many of the opportunities the paper can give students who are interested in communications. Mars said she was able to use and grow her photography skills. Grant was able to get experience covering breaking news and politics. Many things go into making a great newspaper and therefore a diverse set of skills are required.
The student-run newspaper works independently from university but has many advisers to help guide students when creating news articles for print. Chief editor, Kamrin Baker, said this gives the newspaper more flexibility on the types of stories it runs, compared to if the university had direct control over the paper.
The paper has run on this autonomy style for the last 107 years. In that time, the newspaper went from just a newsletter called The Yellow Sheet to The Gateway with a content-packed paper based on news from around the UNO campus, and it has its own web presence. A new print edition of The Gateway is sent out twice a month with stories written by both a paid staff as well as student contributors. The online portion of The Gateway is constantly being updated with new and exciting content that is often distributed via social media, a key-way of reaching their student audience.
Surprisingly, even though their website is updated constantly, the print edition is their main moneymaker with 85% of their ad revenue coming from it. In addition to selling ads, the paper has fundraising campaigns to help with the cost of printing and staff. One upcoming fundraiser is the second annual “Run the Press” 5K fun run at Memorial Park.
MAV Research 