Boxers take hits, football players take hits, and apparently so do newspapers.
Many campus media outlets across Canada have been in jeopardy over the years, but how does Carleton’s press stand up?
We currently have four publications on campus, and there is something for everyone.
The Leveller
If you’re into Ottawa-wide student issues with a left-leaning spin, there’s the Leveller.
Published for the first time in February 2009, the Leveller is Ottawa’s student grassroots movement paper.
The idea for the Leveller started in the fall of 2008 because of labour issues on and off campus, said Andy Crosby, the Leveller’s operations manager. There was a “lack of critical coverage,” Crosby said.
According to Crosby, the paper publishes three times a semester, excluding summer. He said the first issue will be on newsstands around campus September 15.
“We’re a very democratic paper,” Crosby said. “Anyone can write for us; we want a broad readership. The paper is in no danger of being shut down in the near future.”
He said the paper is funded by the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA), the Carleton chapter of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group, and advertising. The Leveller is a free newspaper.
“Every graduate student pays roughly a dollar fifty a year for the Leveller to run its six papers,” Crosby said.
The paper isn’t about profit, it’s about “reporting on stories that go under-reported,” Crosby said.
The Iron Times
If you are an engineering student, or a fan of the Onion, the Iron Times might pique your interest.
The Iron Times is “a satire paper,” said Rebecca Feddema, a third-year engineering student at Carleton, and current editor-in-chief of the Iron Times.
It is open to any and all Carleton students, not just engineers. The paper publishes three papers a semester, excluding summer. It is also a free newspaper.
“We publish on the first of the month,” Feddema said.
You can find a copy of the paper in the Mackenzie Building in purple boxes and online through the Carleton engineering students’ Facebook page.
As far as Feddema knows, the Iron Times hasn’t hit any hard times, she said. “I’ve never heard of it being shut down.”
The paper is funded by the Carleton Student Engineering Society (CSES). Every engineering student pays a $10-dollar fee to CSES through their tuition, and a portion of that levy goes to the paper each year.
“We have changed printers,” Feddema said, going from one in the United Kingdom to one in the United States, but she added there has never been a question of whether or not the paper would survive.
The Resin
If you live on residence, or want to stay up-to-date with residence-related news, the Resin will be publishing again this fall after a two-year hiatus.
This paper, run by the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA), was shut down in 2013 due to a lack of space, RRRA president Graham Pedregosa said in an interview last month with the Charlatan.
Pedregosa said the paper will be returning this year in an online-only format in order to reduce costs, with a different name.
“Everyone is going online for their news sources now,” Pedregosa said.
Luke Bradley, editor-in-chief of the Resin in 2012, said in an interview last month with the Charlatan that one of the main problems leading to the paper’s shutdown was a lack of staff.
Bradley said the paper did not have a large enough staff to produce the kind of paper they wanted to.
“I think we didn’t foresee how much of a process would go into establishing the infrastructure of a newspaper like that,” Bradley said. “As a result, it became more like a newsletter rather than a full newspaper,” Bradley said.
Pedregosa said RRRA hasn’t finalized the details of the new publication yet, but it should be up and running early in the fall semester.
The Charlatan
If you’re looking for a paper that covers campus news at Carleton and around Canada, look to the Charlatan.
The Charlatan started as the Carleton in 1945, according to You Charlatans, a brief history of the Charlatan written by Evan Annett, former news editor at the paper.
In 1971, they held a referendum to vote on a new name because they felt the Carleton “sounded too pretentious,” wrote Annett.
Over the years, the Charlatan has sometimes struggled to stay afloat. In July 1974, the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) bought the Charlatan new typesetting equipment.
The equipment arrived one month late and needed many repairs, and by the end of November 1974 the Charlatan was running a $6,000 deficit to CUSA.
Annett wrote that the CUSA president at the time, Jacqueline Lloyd-Davies, threatened to shut the paper down in response to the deficit. The Charlatan went back to using the off-campus typesetting place, Annett wrote, and the paper was not shut down.
Since 1988, the Charlatan has operated independently from CUSA. The paper is funded by advertising and a $5.67 levy that all Carleton students pay through their tuition.
