Today, student publications across the nation are putting out a call to you, our audience, to #SaveStudentNewsrooms.

Our message is simple: Support local journalism in one of its rawest forms — your campus newspaper.

At the Iowa State Daily, our staff is dedicated to serving the community each day by providing comprehensive coverage of news, sports and entertainment to the Iowa State community. Students, faculty, alumni and community members are able to stay in tune with Iowa State through our multi-platform coverage that can be consumed any time, anywhere.

This year alone we’ve published articles that worked to provide an insight to both the prosperity as well as shortcomings of our community. We’ve given DACA recipients the chance to tell their stories in meaningful ways. We’ve taken a look at how another round of tuition increases will impact students. We’ve analyzed the lag in coaches of color across major college sports. And that’s only a handful of stories that have made an impact in our 128-year history.

Student newspapers need to be saved. As an industry, we have to fight every day to stay relevant, to deliver the news on platforms that best meet your interests, to thwart off attacks that allege well-sourced and truthful reporting as #FakeNews.

To continue to serve you, our readership, we need your support.

As the journalism industry continues to change, it is our task, as a campus newspaper, to remain relevant and to fight every day for not only the truth, but how we can best convey it to you.

It is our responsibility, as a campus newspaper, to build trust with our community and to help shape well-informed citizens. Without the watchful eye of the news industry, our government, our private sector, our higher institutions are provided the opportunity to work outside of your best interest.

It is our responsibility, as a campus newspaper, to help build discourse. Without the ability to provide free expression or thought, or without the proper mechanisms or platform to do so, our community is silenced. As a campus newspaper, we encourage you, our readership, to help drive conversation within our community and to make your voice heard.

It is our responsibility, as well as our privilege, to serve you. In return, we ask that you support us. How can you support us?

1. Consume our content. We provide content in print five days a week, online 24/7, on social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) and through in-person events. The Daily is fortunate to have a contract with Student Government serving as part of a subscription fee, meaning papers are available around campus and we don’t have a paywall on our website. In doing this, it ensures that you, our readership, can easily access any information about what’s happening within your community at any given time.

We have seen calls to defund the Daily, through the Student Government contract, based on disliking one or two pieces of content we publish. While this is only a portion of our funding, this mindset is a slippery, dangerous slope and must be combatted. 

2. Contribute to the conversation. As a newspaper, we exist to promote the truth and to encourage civil discourse and dialogue. To help us understand both the successes and shortfalls within our community, we need your help. Without you, we cannot continue to report the truth in all its forms — both the good and the bad  — if we do not hear from you. To continue to do this, we need your support.

3. Interact with us. Like many other entities, we too make mistakes. We are willing to accept and learn from them so that we can continue to work within the best interests of our community. While we will continuously seek feedback, we also want you to come to us. Our doors are always open to continue the dialogue and to have honest, open discussions about our coverage. To know where we can improve, we need to hear from you.

4. Donate. Our organization has been a staple in the Iowa State community for 128 years. As an independent news organization, our financial stability is dependent on advertising and donations from our supporters. Donate today to support our quality work and the experience we give students so that we can make an impact for another 128 years.

— Alex Connor, incoming fall-spring editor in chief and Emily Barske, outgoing fall-spring editor in chief