Rider University, in New Jersey, cut support for its student newspaper amid institution-wide budget cuts that included layoffs over the summer.
The Rider News learned in August that the university pulled its contribution to the newspaper’s print edition for the current fiscal year, editors said in a Wednesday post.
“The Rider News is deeply disappointed by the decision, as the print edition of the paper has been a constant on campus for nearly a century; however, we also understand that Rider’s current financial situation and recurring deficits need to be fixed with difficult choices,” they said.
The cuts at the publication are part of a much larger budget revamp at the private nonprofit.
For the fiscal year ending June 2023, the university posted an operating deficit of over $17 million, according to its latest financials. Last week, Rider President Gregory Dell’Omo reported the gap shrank to $10.2 million for fiscal 2024, according to Rider News.
As part of the budget-reduction push, the university eliminated 31 staff positions just over a month ago. Just under half of the job cuts were layoffs, while the rest were vacant roles, according to local media reports.
The deficits follow declines in revenue, including from tuition and fees, which fell 6.8% to $71.2 million in 2023. Those declines follow drops in enrollment, with fall total head count dropping 3.6% to 4,054 students from 2021 to 2022, per federal data.
As of Aug. 28, Rider’s fall enrollment stood at 3,648, missings internal projections by 58 students, according to Rider News’ report of Dell’Omo’s presentation.
Not helping enrollment is a 12% decline in student filings of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid at Rider amid a nationwide decrease after the U.S. Department of Education’s late, glitch-filled release of a revamped version of the form.
Now, the student journalists who have covered the university's cuts are feeling the sting themselves. The loss of funding forced Rider News to make operational changes on the fly. Specifically, the newspaper plans to publish a print version of only half of its editions, the other half being completely digital.
Rider News is funding those print editions with savings from advertising revenue from past years while it transitions to a digital-only model. It will also cut the size of its print versions from 12 to eight pages.
“The student staff of The Rider News took great pride in delivering news to the community via a regular print edition for 94 years,” editors said. “It is a shame that our newsstands, where students, faculty and staff alike would normally grab our latest issue, will be empty at times.”
