The Iowa Stater, a newspaper sent out to ISU alumni, printed its last issue this month.

Rising publication costs and declining financial support were main reasons for no longer printing the paper, said John McCarroll, director of university relations.

In 1974, the Iowa Stater made its debut with 11 issues per year, McCarroll said.

He added that through the years the frequency of publication has dramatically decreased due to rising production and mail costs. McCarroll said since 1994, postal rates have increased from $16,000 to about $27,000 per issue, and printing costs have increased from $9,000 to $19,000 per issue.

The publication has only been printed twice a year recently.

To make it more viable, McCarroll said it would need to be printed more frequently.

Jeff Johnson, director of the ISU Alumni Association, said the Iowa Stater kept alumni updated on faculty, students and sports at the university.

“We never want to take anything from anyone, but in budget times, we have to,” Johnson said.

The Alumni Association and its publication, Visions, are going to make some changes to compensate for the loss of the paper. For instance, “Class Notes,” which focuses on alumni classmates, is now going to be available in an online version.

Other information for alumni will be put on the ISU Web site and people are still able to view a news page every day on the site, as well as each college Web site, Johnson said.

Johnson and McCarroll both agreed that it was an unfortunate loss for alumni and they’re working toward increasing the Web site content.

“We had been talking about it for some time, and it all came together last fall . We simply had to make the decision,” McCarroll said.