I am writing in response to the editorial published in the Tuesday, June 11th issue of the lowa State Daily.

I believe that this letter contained some errors in relation to both the Campus Reader and the lowa State Daily.

Let me begin by saying that I am a full-time student at Iowa State majoring in journalism and I am sophomore.

I have worked for the Campus Reader for four months and I have learned much about the mass media in the process, so I feel that I have adequate background to explain to the readers of the Daily what we at the Campus Reader are all about.

We are a young paper and we are building our staff. We do have several student writers (and one non-student writer), a student photographer, and three student advertising sales representatives that are overseen by a non-student ad director and a non-student general manager.

We are a business, just like any other newspaper, and therefore we employ seasoned business people, similar to the Daily, to help us promote and gather advertising for the paper.

Not only are these individuals excellent at what they do, they are a great resource for journalism students, like myself, who want to learn from some of the best in the business.

In his editorial, editor Jamey Hansen says that the Daily is “editorially and financially independent” from the university.

However, according to the Government of the Student Body, the Daily receives approximately $80,000 per year from the GSB to fund its operations, along with rent-tree space and use of the campus mailing system without charge.

The Daily, as a tool for ISU students to try their hand at the newspaper business, is a student organization, and in my opinion, there is nothing wrong with it receiving funding; however it should not, in my opinion, say that it is an “an independent voice” when it is not.

Finally, anyone that reads the Campus Reader and the Daily will soon recognize that to compare the two is like comparing apples and oranges

For starters, we at the Reader are published once a week, on Thursdays, whereas the Daily publishes, well, daily, along with numerous other differences.

We want to emphasize that we really do not wish to compete with the Daily. We feel that this market is large enough for the both of us and many other news sources, especially when we are doing such different things.

The Campus Reader was founded to provide another learning lab for the journalism students at Iowa State. We welcome any inquiries about what we do here and we are still looking for more staff members in every facet of production, from sales, to editorial, to photography, to design and lay-out, and more.

We encourage anyone who’s interested to come to our Welch Avenue offices and check us out.

Amber Ehlers

Sophomore

Journalism and Mass

Communication