THE BUDGET CHANGES

This year I realized something. My job as a journalist is not just writing and designing. This job is truly a business.

 

As I pointed out on one of the editorials I wrote this year, our budget for The Tower is decreasing. Our school district is in a deep deficit and, sadly, it's affecting us too. The district can no longer provide us with as many funds and is seeking for us to become self-sufficient. It's understandable, but it's not going to be a breeze to achieve this.

 

The Tower gets revenue from a few different areas. This year so far, we have increased our ad sales by $4,500. This has been achieved by strong communication between the business manager and I. He had high hopes going into the year and wanted to get a lot of ads in for the first issue, instead of introducing ad sales later on in September. I printed the ad sheets during the summer and encouraged people to start getting ads then. Subscriptions to the newspaper every Wednesday and an email link to the issue provide a majority of our income ($25,656 this year) Also, the district gave us $5,000 this year and a Tower Fee for each staffer gives us another $5,000. Yeah, it could seem like we shouldn't be having money problems, but maintaining a publication is expensive.

 

With the price of printing, website software, supplies, and memberships to Journalism associations, things get pricey. More importantly, we discovered in October that we lost a grant that paid for our final issue. The Mother's Club of Grosse Pointe South has paid for the final issue for at least ten years. The issue is a 28 page, full color, highly anticipated issue. All senior staffers write their final column. A map shows where everyone in the grade is continuing their education. It's the last hoorah of the year. On such a short notice, we had to decide if we wanted to raise our own $3,100 to print the issue or to lessen the extent of the issue. Guess what option I chose? Yes, option one. There is no way I would let any other way happen.

 

HOW WE HAVE HANDLED THE CHANGES

This leads me to the second revenue option on the image on the left- fundraising. We got pretty lucky this year. The Tower is 90 years old this school year. Because of this, we decided we needed to celebrate the milestone. Right before Christmas Break, we outlined our plan- a 12-page issue to celebrate 90 years of the school and The Tower containing stories, quotes, and photos from 1927 to the present. The issue would be the first one we put out in 2018, meaning deadlines for the issue would take place the week of our school's midterms. It was a lot to take on, yet it was a perfect move for what we have planned.

 

The digital version of the issue is located on the right. As you can see from the banner on page 1, the editorial on page 2, and the story on page 3, we are hosting a black tie Tower fundraiser, inviting Tower alum, community members, and journalism enthusiasts to come out and support our publication. Announcing the party through advertisements in the special issue was a strategic move because we knew how many alum would be reading the issue. We wanted to gain as much hype as possible. The party, held on March 23, will have sponsorships and a silent auction, which are projected to reel in a ton of money. I'm excited to attend and really to just celebrate the power of journalism.

 

This event has called for a lot of preparation and advertisements, but I think we are building a nice foundation for our fundraising strategies. I'm proud of how much experience I have gained in respects budgeting through these adversities. Raising money for our publication, unfortunately, is going to be a reality for each school year following this one. It's important to understand this truth and begin thinking creatively about how we are going to maintain the funds to publish such a strong paper. Money should never hold anything back.