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Wednesday, June 26, 1991 / University Daily Kansan
Alternate papers offer variety while enduring strict budgets
Without outside money, many must cut circulation, size
By Eric Swanson Kansan staff writer
Lawrence residents John Wells and Laurie Martin had been dreaming of starting their new newspaper for a while, but now it would be time or money would be available.
In March 1991, they started an alternative newspaper, the Lawrence City Flver.
"We want to keep it small and manageable." he said. "We've figured out how much money we need to keep it at this size."
Wells said he needed to find more employees and a steady source of money for the newspaper.
"We can't continue to pay out of our own pockets." he said.
our own pockets," he said.
"I think it will survive as long as I want it to. I think the money will be there from one source or another."
The Flyer has been published three times since March. It originally was intended to be a triview literary magazine, but it has become a monthly alternative newspaper conference commentary, poetry and fiction.
"We really want to have a literary emphasis in our paper, but if there are issues that people are talking about we'll tackle them." Wells said.
Other alternative papers are designed to correct what their own perceive as the faults of the mainstream press.
Chris Kromm, Manhattan senior, is an editor of Take This!, a student newspaper designed as an alternative to the University Daily Kansas.
we to the University Gary Ransom
Kromm said he objected to the
Kansan because its news coverage
was hindered by its ties to the School of Journalism and the University of Kansas.
"Because Kansan reporters are looking for jobs, they don't want to write anything that will rock the boat." Kromm said. "The Kansan shouldn't be just a laboratory for a department on campus."
Disorientation, an annual magazine published by a group of KU students, started in 1985. The magazine was independently financed until 1987, when the group began to receive money from Student Senate.
The group took the name Diorstion in 1990 and changed the name of their periodical to Take This!, a monthly newsman.
Take This! does not sell advertising or offer paid subscriptions.
Kromm said the policy helped the newspaper avoid what he described as the Kansan mentality.
"The Kanes mentality is that the news is news if it makes money," he said. "We could probably use the money from selling ads, but we don't."
Kromm said Take This! was not influenced by Student Senate.
"We get our money from them, but they respect us as an independent source of news," he said.
Another alternative newspaper, the Lawrence Observer, did not have a steady income or advertising base. She was employed by 1980 and survived only six months.
"It was idealistic enough to think that if you've got the readers, the advertisers will follow," she said, advertising; there just wasn't enough.
new newsnaner
Janet Majure, former publisher of the Lawrence Observer, said that she had managed to attract a few small students to the college of tisers were hesitant to buy space in a
The Observer began as a free newspaper but offered paid subscriptions after a few weeks.
The newsletter became a forum for political commentary a year later.
Tim Miller, assistant professor of religion, has had experience with alternative newspapers. He was the editor for eight years of the Plumber's Friend, a monthly newsletter that started in September 1981.
"The Plumber's Friend started out as an investigative paper, but it turned into a comic book."
The Plumber's Friend was available for a 25-cents an-issue fee in newspaper boxes throughout Lawrence. The income from sales, combined with his own money, kept the newsletter alive. Miller said.
He said the cost of maintaining the newsletter forced him to restrict each newsletter to a few photocopied pages.
"I designed it so that financing wouldn't be an issue," he said. "You would have to have very deep connections to keep a newspaper going for long."
Miller said that he lost some money on the newsletter but that it was not a substantial loss.
He said Lawrence still needed an independent press
"It's better to have several people managing the news than one person," he said.
Bv Jeff Meesev
Pearson Hall gets help
Kansan staff writer
The housing department is improving Pearson Scholarship Hall after time conflicts and bid times delayed the project for a year.
Carol von Tersch, assistant director of housing, said the ball, 1426 Alumni Place, was inaccessible to disabled students.
"All the halls, as they are renovated, are being made hand-capped-accessible to some extent," von Tersch said.
She said renovations would include installing an elevator, which would give disabled students access to basement-level rooms, including the kitchen, dining and recreation rooms.
Dennis Enslinger, scholarship hall academic program assistant, said, "Before these renovations to Pearson, a person in a wheelchair could not even get to the basement level."
Because the elevator stops only on the first and basement floors, the second and third floors still will be available to students in wheelchairs.
Metro Construction Co. began gutting the basement and first floor of the all-male hall in May
Students will be allowed to move into Pearson on Aug. 18 although the hall may not be finished completely.
The $500,000 project also includes renovating the bathrooms on the second and third floors.
The housing department wanted to renovate Pearson last summer, but cost estimates for the project were not available. The department wanted to pay, von Tersch said.
Von Tersch said the hall used to have "gang showers", in which three or four shower heads were in the same area. After the renovations, individual showers will replace the gang showers.
"Last year was not a good, competitive bidding climate," she
SEE THE CLASSIFIEDS
Ron Ball, a employee of Young Construction in Topeka, clears copper piping that will be used in Pearson Scholarship Hall.
said. "We had a full set of drawings last year, but it has been in the planning stages for quite a while."
Von Tersch said that last year the department also was worried that the renovations would not be
finished in time
Three years ago, the housing department built a gabled roof on Pearson. This summer, it also is working to replace some of the flat roofs at Stouffer Place Apartments with gabled roofs.
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