In the midst of a financial crisis, Montreal Campus, the UQAM student newspaper, has just launched a final call for help through a crowdfunding campaign. The donations raised will allow the independent media to survive and relaunch its digital shift, neglected in recent years for lack of funds.
“It’s really our last resort to raise money quickly, explains the current editor-in-chief, Marie-Soleil Lajeunesse. It will help us to finish the year, but it will above all help the next team to have the means to develop its projects instead of being caught, like us, by not being able to realize all its ideas. »
The appeal for donations went out a week ago, to the day, on the newspaper’s website. The team has set itself the goal of raising the sum of $3,500. In less than 48 hours, donations had already reached $2,000 and, at the time of writing, the jackpot was $3,015.
“We were really surprised and very touched by the help received so quickly,” confides, moved, the editor-in-chief, even letting herself dream of harvesting more than expected by the end of the campaign in a month. The donations collected will be devoted to the purchase of audiovisual material, but also to the modernization of the website.
Whether Montreal Campus has increased its presence on the Web and social networks, already publishing videos and information podcasts, it should be noted that everything was produced with the meager means at hand. “Employees often have to take their personal equipment, because we don’t have enough. But it is not viable as an operation, ”argues Marie-Soleil Lajeunesse.
That’s not to mention the website, which hasn’t been updated in five years. Not only do the layout issues multiply, but the interface severely limits the creativity of the team.
Financial difficulties
This crowdfunding campaign will also make it possible to bequeath a small survival cushion, rather than debts, to the next team that will take over in a few months. However, this will not be enough to ensure the sustainability of the newspaper in the longer term.
For more than ten years, the newspaper’s finances have been dwindling due in particular to the fall in advertising revenues and the increase in printing costs. These monopolize half of the budget, which was only $6,000 for 2022-2023.
To save this journal that is dear to them, the different cohorts had to make heartbreaking choices. Since 2010, the members of the editorial team are no longer paid for their work, which has therefore become voluntary. Only interns still receive a salary thanks to various scholarships, notably from the Student Life Service of UQAM, the Faculty of Communications and the School of Media.
It was also necessary to gradually reduce the number of paper publications to save money. When it was founded in 1980, Montreal Campus was a weekly. Over time, it became a fortnightly, only to be published three times a year in print. Today, only two annual editions are still printed. And here again, the challenge is daunting. A few months ago, Marie-Soleil Lajeunesse feared having to draw a line under the spring edition.
“We finally got there, it’s flush, but we succeeded. We are in the middle of the corrections at the moment. On the other hand, we will surely cut in the number of copies, go from 1000 to perhaps 800”, explains the editor-in-chief.
“Of course I’m worried, I’m afraid for the future of the Montreal Campus, she continues. I don’t think he’s going to die tomorrow, but if we don’t start all the steps now to ensure his survival, it will be very difficult for the next teams to save him. »
Source of funding
According to her, the solution would be to benefit from a non-compulsory automatic contribution (CANO). This is a fee of a few dollars deducted directly from the students’ bill. This funding model already applies to several university publications in Quebec, such as Free time from the University of Montreal or Tea McGill Daily and its French counterpart, The offense.
The two student newspapers at McGill University conducted an entire campaign this fall to convince the student community to come out in favor of maintaining this membership fee, which ensures their survival.
“Unfortunately, we missed our chance, we didn’t know that the deadline for applying to UQAM was November 15,” reports Marie-Soleil Lajeunesse. It nevertheless set up a committee in January to put together an application file.
” It’s a lot of work. It takes administrative evidence, letters of support from various UQAM associations. We are working on it and I intend to follow up with the next team even if my mandate ends in June,” says the editor-in-chief, more motivated than ever.