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SPC leaders meet

Staff shortage, funding discussed

Cougar News Staff

Despite staff shortages and a learning curve for new recruits, Student Publications leaders said they had strong progress in their monthly reports to the Student Publications Committee meeting Thursday.

Every department representative said new staff members had been hired and were in training.

Student Publications Director Dick Cigler informed the committee that the department will make its presentation to the Student Fees Advisory Committee soon. The Daily Cougar gets approximately 22 percent, or $159,000, of its budget from student fees because the advertising sales staff is students who cannot contribute the same time resources a professional staff could.

Cigler also mentioned discrepancies faced during The Daily Cougaris first week of publication, when the first issue was postponed at the printing plant because a new printer had been installed.

"That paper took 10 hours to print out that night. Thatis normally a two-hour job," Cigler said.

Advertising manager Delores Crawford said the advertising staff is reaching its sales goals. She also said a career resource guide would be published on Jan. 29. 

"We ended the semester on a high note," Crawford said. "And weire starting the semester on a high note."

The advertising staff is on track to meet its goal of $30,000 sales revenue for January. During months in which the Daily Cougar publishes for the full month, revenue goals are between $50,000 and $60,000.

Production manager Kelly Truitt said the Daily Cougar online archives had 53,000 page views for the week Jan. 8-15. That number is consistent with last semester, when the average number of views was between 50,000 and 60,000 per week. Each week The Daily Cougar Online receives about 9,000 hits.

Houstonian editor Ashley Grubbs said the yearbook has experienced considerable turnover. Two academic editors have come and gone since the start of the Fall semester, and a third was hired Thursday. A new photo editor was also hired.

"Things are going fine," Daily Cougar Editor-in-Chief Cara Sarelli said of the paperis progress. "Weive been getting a lot of applications."

Sarelli said the editorial department should be at full staff soon.

The committee will meet again Feb. 20 at 4 p.m. The location of the meeting has not been set.
 

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