A recent blog post by OnwardState.com addressed the financial situation facing newspapers, especially college newspapers. It's an excellent piece that looks at how some college papers are joining the rest of the journalism industry in terms of financial difficulties.

But there was one part of the post that needs to be addressed:
"If the Collegian finds itself short of funds, then it could always ask the University for a greater subsidy, but the chances of a successful result are extremely low."

This is a common misconception about The Daily Collegian, but the organization does not receive any subsidies from Penn State. Many college newspapers are funded by their schools, but the Collegian is financially independent. It's one of very few independent school papers in the country.

The only money that we receive from Penn State is part of an long-term agreement that sells papers to the school daily, making the Collegian free for you on campus. It also means that, as the editor in chief, I have the final say on all of our coverage, and we do not face any censorship from the university.

Of course, this also means that we are on our own financially. We have a board of directors that meets almost every month to help review our finances, among other things. And, like most other newspaper in the country, we're all trying to figure out how to make more money without making too many cuts.

The board meets tonight (Thursday) at 7:15, and Onward State has already said someone representing the blog will be there to observe the conversation.

We're proud to be an independent student newspaper, and we always welcome questions from interested readers. Leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail if you're one of them.

As a native of the Philadelphia area (see: not actually from within the city), I grew up with the Philadelphia Inquirer. Every day, I found it sitting on the kitchen table, the latest Phillies news waiting to be read.

So the last few hours have been quite sad for this Inq junkie. That which all readers knew, but denied anyway, has been verified: The Inquirer is no Highlander.

Because of advertising struggles (like those of every other paper in the nation), the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A statement from the publisher said the newspapers will continue operations as usual, but the damage to morale was done.

It started a few years ago, really. The Inq began using more wire reports for stories outside the tri-state area. In-depth pieces, a staple of reporting, were the next victim as the paper shrank each year.

Readers could have pretended that things weren't that bad. But the bankruptcy filing has made it clear that Philadelphia is as much at risk of losing its newspapers as any other city.

The announcement came less than 24 hours after a bankruptcy filing from the Journal-Register Company, which owns 179 newspapers (including my own county paper, The Times Herald). The company has garnered almost $700 million in debt. It, too, intends to survive.

But it's a gloomy time for newspapers, and Philadelphia is in no way alone.

The Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy last month, and has been planning some drastic changes to its publication. McClatchy, which owns the Centre Daily Times, has also been struggling financially.

It's the end of an era for newspaper journalism; there's no doubt about that. This does not mean the end of newspapers, however. I'm a firm believer that the value of journalism is too much for the public to abandon. There is also a great future ahead in terms of multimedia, a field we at The Collegian are fiercely pursuing.

There's a race taking place across the nation, and every newspaper is running. The finish line: finding a new business model for the journalism industry. It's a unique race in that no one cares about winning; everyone just wants anyone to finish. Plenty of ideas have come and gone; none has stood the test of time and a bad economy.

Now the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News have taken their spots in the race. It will be interesting to see what adjustments are made by these two papers in the coming months. As a journalist and a reader, I just hope adjustments are made soon.

There's bound to be a lot of Phillies coverage this summer.

In the early hours of Thon, Collegianites were kept company by Davis of Onward State, but our row is now occupied by only the campus editors and myself. There are now eight empty chairs in our row (perhaps it has something to do with being 5:30 a.m.).

But the two student radio stations, The Lion 90.7 fm and CommRadio, are both holding strong behind us, covering Thon live. Both are available online and are worth a listen. Since my interview, The Lion has chatted with University Park Undergraduate Association President Gavin Kierans and a student from merchandise. CommRadio is giving an excellent play-by-play of all the events.

Everyone's starting to look a little tired, but some are getting their second wind coffee refills. Campus editor Matt Conte has been here since 4 p.m. (excluding a 90-minute break), and my only break was 8 p.m. 'til midnight. We'll be getting out of here soon, though, and leaving our morning coverage in the hands of a slew of other Collegian editors.

This is likely the last post for a while. Enjoy Thon, and I'll be back this afternoon.

I just finished a nice conversation with friends of the Collegian, 90.7 f.m. The Lion. These guys are broadcasting live from Thon in addition to their usual spot in the HUB. It sounds like the HUB is a little calmer than the BJC right about now.

We chatted a bit about what Collegian readers can expect in Monday's paper (hint: lots of Thon coverage), how much space the paper's staff can take up (an entire row in the press section) and how to get the morning show some free publicity in the Collegian (or on this blog?).

Be sure to tune into The Lion while you peruse the Collegian. You don't need your ears to follow this blog.

These dancers might not have had a chance to take a break yet, but I did. This post marks the beginning of my second tour of duty in the BJC.

It wasn't much of a break, but I did get a chance to see "Milk" at the State Theatre before picking up some snacks for the red-eye Collegianites. One greeks reporter and the campus editor are also here again, but we've picked up some help for the 1 a.m. shift.

When you're covering a 46-hour event, it helps to have a staff of 200 students. We currently have the sports editor and a copy editor on editing duty; we have an arts staff writer helping with writing, too. They'll be here until about 4 a.m.

When asked if he ever thought he would be working the midnight-4 a.m. shift of Thon, sports editor Kevin Zitzman replied: "Yes, really. Plus, I've posted three sports updates while here."

Good sport.

Greetings from Press Row at Thon 2009.

I'm stationed here with my esteemed greeks reporters and my campus editors, and we're just about all set up for the next three days.

What does it take to cover the biggest Penn State event of the semester (perhaps the year)? We've got five laptops, cameras, video cameras, voice recorders, spare notebooks, extra reading material and a slew of staff members signed up for shifts until Sunday.

The Daily Collegian Online will remain a 24-hour operation this weekend, so be sure to continue checking for updates. We'll be posting articles on our soon-to-be-released revised home page. But, for the first time ever, we'll be posting videos of Thon throughout Thon. Of course, don't forget to check our Thon blog for more information about the weekend and this blog for how we're handling it all.

You just can't get enough of The Daily Collegian. When you want the most recent Penn State news, you check psucollegian.com. But what about when you're in class, you want the most recent headlines, but you don't have a fancy iPhone?

The Collegian is now mobile!

If you can access the Internet on your cell phone, check psucollegian.com/m for a simplified version of our Web site. Don't expect a fancy design, photos or videos, but do expect all the news that you get at our regular home page.

Any thoughts? Leave a comment.

Well, failed is not exactly correct.

I vowed in early January to blog more than I did last semester. But statistics say 80-90 percent of New Year's resolutions are broken (and 54 percent of all stats are made up). And, honestly, last semester wasn't that impressive, so it doesn't take much to improve on it.

Like most modern reporters, I'm crazy about blogs (mostly reading them, clearly). And, and Penn State, there are a few blogs I follow as much almost as much as the other Collegian blogs.

One of my favorites is onwardstate.com, run by executive editor Davis Shaver. Davis and I had the chance to meet before Onward State began, and he spoke about the need for more blogging in the Penn State community.

Now, Davis is being rewarded for his efforts. Onward State was named the Best Alternative Media Outlet by The Paper Trail, of U.S. News and World Report.

Onward State updates at least several times a day with recurring features, breaking news and observations about the Collegian. I look forward to seeing how the blog progresses, and I hope it continues to update with more frequency than my own blog.

Congratulations to Davis and company.

The Chicago Tribune -- one of the newest models of struggle in the newspaper industry -- recently announced it is producing a tabloid version of the paper Monday-Friday.

The drastic change is needed, the paper said, to stay afloat financially and to continue to compete with the Chicago Sun-Times, another tabloid. Subscribers will still receive the broadsheet paper, but newsstands will begin to carry the new tabloid edition.

What... what?

That's right. The Tribune is going to produce two different versions of its paper. They will have the same content, but the size and look will be different.

This sounds a little familiar...

In 2005, the Patriot-News tried a similar move. Needless to say, it didn't last.

As the editor of a broadsheet-style newspaper, I should condemn the move, but Chicago has a lot of something that State College does not: commuters. Before coming to State College, I took a lot of public transit, and there's something to what Tribune editors are saying. Commuters love tabloids, especially during the morning rush. Try opening up the Philadelphia Inquirer (broadsheet) on a busy subway line, and see how many friends you can make before getting to your stop (Hint: 0).

Nevertheless, the move is questionable when it comes to the Tribune's financial status. I asked some of my editors how they would feel about putting together two papers at 2 a.m., and the responses were not positive suitable for publication here. I'm not sure if the Tribune is planning on hiring more copy editors for the move, but "they will if they want to avoid a riot," according to one editor.

In short, we at the Collegian hope to see the Tribune pull through this tough financial time. It's a tough time for major newspapers, and we want to see them all succeed jobs.

The terms hammer, gutter, jump and wrap probably aren't anything all that special in your vocabulary. But for the nine staff members currently in the Collegian classroom, those words are getting totally new definitions.

It's part of our Design and Editing Workshop we put together every semester for new and returning editors at The Collegian. The rookies, who have so selflessly returned to State College early, are learning the basics today. They'll meet with the veterans tomorrow.

They're learning that a hammer refers to a giant, two- or three-word headline, a gutter is a space between stories that run the whole length of a page, a jump is where the rest of a front-page story ends up, and a wrap is used to fit a photo within an article.

Do they know it already? Perhaps. The least experienced among them have been here for at least a year. But part of The Collegian's mission is to make sure that our staff members get a quality education about working for a newspaper. And, at least at this paper, that means learning to be versatile.

By Sunday morning, these students will have a working knowledge about copy editing, page design, management and (best of all) stress management. By Sunday afternoon, they'll be putting their new skills to work.

This is the next generation of leaders at The Collegian. Next year, they'll be the veterans showing the rookies the ropes. Some of them will be looking for jobs.

Until then, though, it's on-the-job training.