Ryerson Review of Journalism examining its funding options

Spring 2015 issue

The Ryerson Review of Journalism, which just published its annual issue and which is highly valued by journalism students and people in the industry, is considering a fundraising campaign over the next 18 months to replace advertising support that has all-but dried up, according to a post on J-source. 

The publication went from two issues a year to one in 2013 but there remains the magazine's production and print costs of $10,000 to $13,000. Ad and sponsorship sales have declined sharply over the past 8 years.

Ryerson professor and graduate program director Bill Reynolds will head up the fundraising campaign that will, in part, determine what the RRJ’s future will look like in two years. “The print version is guaranteed for Spring 2016, but it’s not guaranteed for Spring 2017,” [he] said....Reynolds said the effort is largely to avoid a scenario beyond 2017 where the publication goes  online-only, or print-on-demand, which would cut the RRJ’s circulation and newsstand functions out of its production.

Ivor Shapiro, the chair of the school, cautions

"The plan is to brainstorm to look at various options: print and digital, print-on-demand and digital, digital-only or otherwise. The only plan really is to discuss them....It’s not necessarily that it costs too much, but it costs a great deal to print and distribute it. We’re looking at how that money’s spent, and where it’s going to come from.”