Being a student magazine is tough these days. Being criticised from all sides. Threats of budget cuts. Luring students into the office to fill my pages with sweet sweet content. Competing with online publications and mainstream media for students attention. At the same time having to deal with international economic crises, the whims of student associations, the Editor (who I like to think of as my caretaker), contributors, advertisers and national governments.
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Me and my sibling publications Critic, Craccum, Canta and Chaff constitute five of the oldest surviving publications in New Zealand. For well over seventy years we have been a breeding ground for future journalists, writers, academics, politicians and at least one Prime Minister. We have become an alternate source of news for student populations countrywide and have catered to the needs of students where other publications have little penetration.
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For those of you who don’t know me, Salient is the publication of the Victoria University of Wellington Student Association. I was founded in 1938 with the intent of providing a place for students to debate about issues which faced us as not only students at Vic, but as residents of Wellington and citizens of the world. Originally a newspaper, I have changed my appearance many times. Some say I’m still looking quite young for my age.
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Somewhere along the tangled web of history I became associated with VUWSA. Looking back on things this infatuation was short lived. Maybe we should’ve thought about things a bit before jumping into bed with them. But we both saw that it was important to have a publication that could act as a conduit. Engaging students and challenging them to think about issues, providing feed back and a playpen for ideas to be thrown around. Securing a publication that was run by students, for students and funded by students.
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I’m now governed by the Salient Charter, which is part of the VUWSA Constitution. The Charter affords Salient many freedoms, which have in the past caused conflict with the Executive, but over all have safeguarded Salient’s duty to act as a watchdog on the Executive.
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We have “complete freedom from political interference”. We’re entitled to “remain in the [Exec] meeting if it moves into committee.” It provides that we are “entitled to adequate accommodation, furnishings and equipment… equivalent to the current standard” which if you’ve ever been into the Salient office is a pretty sweet deal.
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But the most important piece of the Salient Charter is point sixteen: “Because of its role in all goals of the Association, Salient is entitled to adequate funding by the association.” As I wrote earlier this year: “we’re pretty much joined at the hip.” Where the VUWSA stallion bolts surely Salient’s donkey will be tethered behind jotting down notes about the journey.
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Printing costs money: roughly $5000 a week for 6000 copies that we distribute around Victoria. We run twenty-four issues a year. We have to have paid staff. Someone to be the editor, a designer to put the whole shebang together, a news writer to go out and find things happening on campus, distributors to get the final product to you, a advertising guy to solicit my pages for cash.
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Currently we meet half our costs with advertising. But world events are starting to draw tight on businesses ability to advertise with us. This means a likely down turn in my earnings for next year.
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But the thing that really makes me salient (Oh I do enjoy a good play on words) is you. I’m a bit of a free spirit. I’ve generally been a lefty. But at times radical, commie, conservative and existential. But that is shaped by the students who come in and contribute.
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Approximately $8 of your student levy comes to me. For that tiny weeny amount of money you get twenty-four issues of the finest student journalism New Zealand has to offer. Or at least a handy way to start fires during the windy Wellington winters. You have the right to submit content to the magazine. You have the right to come hang in the office talk smack about philosophy, play chess, and drink scotch. It gives you a letters page on which you can bitch and moan about VUWSA, VUW, your flat mate, the editor. Shit! anything you want to bitch and moan about.
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For many of you I am the only VUWSA service that you’ll ever use. The 2008 Student Union Survey reckons that for about 67% of students, Salient was the top VUWSA service. The diary and wall planner, that I have a hand in making, we important too (about 45% of you use them.) Our pick up rate on campus is about 95% and we get well over 40,000 hits on this very website every month. Copies of the magazine are sent to the Prime Ministers office, all the political parties media teams, notable public figures and even to people internationally. We have broken stories that MSM have plagiarized. I constantly sit on the shoulder of the executive, report their mupperty and make sure they’re accountable to you.
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We aren’t running on much. The term oily rag comes to mind. We don’t spend thousands of dollars on vans, psychic hot lines, painting over graffiti or offering unoriginal rewards for the capture of visiting dignitaries. In fact because the Editor has a committee that he or she has to report to, we’re probably the best managed arm of VUWSA.
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Simply put: a cut in the amount of funding that I get from VUWSA means a cut in quality of the magazine.
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VUWSA needs to be building an association that seeks to grow and gather more services rather than less. I hope to be an integral part of that over the coming years. Without adequate funding Salient will become less salient. Students need to know what is happening with their money. They need something tangible in their hands. We need a place to discuss ideas, proposals and a place to showcase the talent and massive potential that the study body has. And I, well to be quite frank, I won’t be able to do that without the current level of funding. I am a student magazine. That means I’m there for you. I’m not a business; although I would like to make money, that has never been one of my aims. I am not a Advertisers magazine or a sponsors magazine. I’m yours.