The global university newspaper

It’s been a long time since President Roosevelt declared - for us - the famous words "look to Norway." When The Chronicle's foreign editor, Beth McMurtrie, is asked to identify the parts of the world where her publication has its greatest focus, she replies with the following list: China, India, the Middle East, and then Europe, Canada and Latin America, in that order. Africa is of some interest, because a number of public institutions have development-oriented cooperation projects there.

“First and foremost, our readers want to read about what's going on in countries where they have projects. Plus 200 000 of a total of 600 000 foreign students in the United States come from either India or China. In other words, every third foreign student comes from one of those two countries. These nations represent large markets for American players,” she says.

“There is also an increasing tendency for educational institutions to expand their partnerships with sister institutions around the world. It’s natural for our readers to want to keep abreast of these collaborations. This is also reflected in our coverage,” she adds.

When Americans study abroad, they tend to make traditional choices. Around 60 per cent select western European universities, particularly in the UK, but also in Italy and Spain, which are preferred. However, McMurtrie, adds, “Americans really don’t tend to study abroad very much.”

An expanded presence on the Web

The Chronicle of Higher Education is the world's largest university newspaper. The newspaper has 170 employees, of which 70 work in the newsroom as either reporters or editors. In the Norwegian context, that’s the equivalent of a good-sized regional newspaper. But when we reach the reception desk on the fifth floor of an official looking building just 15 minutes walk from the White House, everything is quiet and peaceful. A lonely receptionist is the only person there to keep us company.

McMurtrie brings an assortment of publications from her newspaper’s publishing house to our meeting: The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The Chronicle Review, The Academic Workplace and Diversity in Academe.

McMurtrie says the paid readership of The Chronicle's print edition totals between 75 000 and 80 000 subscribers. Because each copy is read by more than one person, however, the total number of readers probably adds up to around half a million.

It is online, however, that the publication is seeing its greatest expansion. The online version draws between 1 and 2 million clicks a month. In addition, The Chronicle offers a subscription to a hybrid version that is somewhere in between a paper and an online version. Universities also have the option of a multi-user subscription.

The newspaper has a staff of foreign correspondents who cover different parts of the world. These employees, a dozen in number, are not members of the permanent staff. Instead, they are employed as “stringers”, which means that they get a minimum fixed fee and then are paid extra for the stories they provide. Measured by their economic investment in staff, The Chronicle's coverage of what is going on “overseas” can be considered to be modest in scope. This is in keeping with America’s traditionally limited interest in what goes on outside the country.

No more domestic growth

But now The Chronicle has launched a “global edition” on the Internet.

“The idea is to attract more readers around the world by writing about the sector globally. We think we have largely exhausted the potential for new readers inside the US. We are already very well read by people in the sector,” McMurtrie says.

“In countries like China, there’s the potential to attract many new readers. We can also interest different players who operate in these regions. There’s quite a bit being invested in this sector as a whole,” she says, adding that this applies not only to universities and government institutions, but also the business community in general.

“There’s also quite a bit going in the international arena that is of great interest. For example, British universities are committed to increasing their presence in Asia, while Asian universities are seeking to build regional forums for cooperation. All this is of journalistic interest.”

Readers who click onto the Chronicle's online edition from outside the US will be directed to the global edition, while readers from inside the US will be directed to the American edition.

“It will still be the same newspaper. But it is clear - we have to ensure that this pays off, and if there are advertisers to support it, it’s not hard to imagine that we would establish different online editions for different regions of the globe: An Asian edition of The Chronicle, a European edition, and so on. But that is still down the road,” McMurtrie says.

Had to lay off reporters

The Chronicle operates like any other commercial newspaper - It's not linked to the campus of any university, and receives no public financial support. Revenue comes from paid subscribers, and from ads. The journalists who work there have the same qualifications as other reporters. Few are specialists; most are general assignment reporters who have the ability to work in different areas.

Like other newspapers, The Chronicle has been hit by the financial crisis. McMurtrie confirms that several reporters were fired both last year and the year before, but says that the outlook is now improving.

McMurtrie believes that the tendency to move more and more content to the Internet will continue for The Chronicle, as it has for other newspapers. “But we will continue to require readers to pay for a substantial part of that content. I think we have been saved from the worse of the crisis because we have charged for content from the very beginning. People are less willing to pay for the paper edition of something they can get free online.”

China and India are the trend

NTNU is investing heavily in collaboration with universities in China and eventually India. This is something that is in line with the global trend, as The Chronicle's foreign editor sees it.

“The trend is that more people will want to study, and many will want to study abroad. Meanwhile, government payment will be reduced. Look at India. The government wants to drastically, and quickly, increase the level of education, but has not allocated more to the education sector. So who should pay? I think tuition fees will increase in most countries,” McMurtrie says.

She says that Americans are amazed at the reluctance of western European countries to raise tuition fees.

“We get reports of the opposition and the tumult caused by universities wanting to charge fees, and we scratch our heads. It's probably because we’re used to ever-increasing tuition fees. But I think this trend will accelerate. But no matter how it develops and what happens, we plan to report on it,” says McMurtrie.