Hey folks, I'm going to keep it short here. I'm traveling and training while trying to roll out something really special for you next week ahead of Student Press Freedom Day.

I'll be in your inboxes Monday, Feb. 23, instead of next Sunday with what I hope to be an exciting and galvanizing service designed to demonstrate to the rest of the world how meaningful and important the work that you do is. So stay tuned!

I’m off to the East Coast. Good luck out there this week!

In the know

I'm writing this on Valentine's Day, which makes this Wall Street Journal story even cuter: Students at Stanford pioneered a new dating app that's now spreading to other campuses. I sure would love for some of these tech inventions that are going to make millions to have originated in student media. 🤑 

UMich Flint’s student newspaper relaunches after yearlong hiatus

I thought this was instructive: The folks at 404 Media decided to buy a Super Bowl ad to better understand the process. They spent $2,250 for a single TV commercial that aired in one market in Iowa.

Eli Thompson, a journalism student at Indiana University, put the U.S. government on blast in this piece for MS NOW (previously MSNBC) to let other student journalists know “that it doesn’t care about our First Amendment rights.”

It appears that there is some friction at the University of Texas at Dallas between the school-approved student newspaper and the independent paper, The Retrograde.

This story in The Intercept outlines how Google handed over a student journalist's sensitive personal information to ICE following a subpoena.

I'm also keeping an eye on The Amherst Student, where, according to the editorial board, changes were made to the student newspaper's location and operating hours without input of current staffers.

Students at Bakersfield College in California are reporting that administrators and officials increasingly are denying them access to otherwise public events, including an information session hosted by their own student government association.

Resources

I'm partnering with the Scripps Howard Fund to lead the Student Media Sustainability Project in 2026-27. We are looking for four to five college newsrooms ready to get a year’s worth of coaching and training across their entire enterprise, from audience to revenue to management. Here’s an FAQ and the application.

The Epstein files

Have your students been searching the Epstein files for mentions of university-related figures? Some student media definitely have (h/t Stephen Goforth and the CMA listserv):

• University of Alabama alum's family invited Jeffrey Epstein to graduation, possibly visited island (Crimson and White)

• Tulane alum, benefactor Jeffrey Altman named in latest Epstein files release (Hullabaloo)

• Eastern Kentucky University alumnus mentioned in recent batch of Epstein files release (Eastern Progress)

• McCormick professor emailed Jeffrey Epstein after sex offender conviction (Daily Northwestern)

• University Professor and Nobel laureate Richard Axel, CC ’67, was invited to close friend of 11 years Jeffrey Epstein’s island in 2011 (Columbia Spectator)

Inside Higher Ed has this piece about university professors who are being punished for their association with the Epstein files.

Al Jazeera has this great visual guide on all things Epstein and the case files. (Epstein died in 2019 when many of your students were still in middle school, so this context might help.)

How do you even begin searching the Epstein files? Here's a how-to video.

Feedback

Here we are, halfway through February! How are you feeling? Hopeful? Stressed? Tired? Inspired? Probably a little bit of all of the above.

This is your weekly reminder that I am here to serve you. Should you need help with resources, a partner to discuss strategic planning or just a shoulder to cry on, schedule a 30-minute visit with me and let's chat.