CSUB's student newspaper goes back to print after more than two years of online only

Sep. 20—Jennifer Burger still remembers the day Cal State Bakersfield's student newspaper didn't go to print.

It was mid-March 2020 and the latest issue of The Runner was scheduled to go both online and into print. But COVID-19 was coming down the tracks like a runaway train and that day, the campus closed.

"We put it online, and that was it," remembered Burger, a journalism lecturer and the faculty adviser for CSUB's student newspaper. "We closed up the newsroom and walked out."

That was 2 1/2 years ago, and until this week, the student paper that serves nearly 10,000 students, faculty and staff remained online only.

Then on Monday, The Runner's editors and reporters began crisscrossing the southwest Bakersfield campus delivering 1,000 copies of The Runner to news racks, administrative offices and other places readers traditionally could find a copy of the monthly publication.

For a generation that grew up with screens everywhere, and with virtually everything online, the joy they experienced distributing those old-school copies of the tabloid-style periodicals seemed written all over their faces.

"I was a part of The Runner last spring when we were online, but this is my first print publication with The Runner," News Editor Haydee Barahona told The Californian in a text.

"It's very exciting," she said. "Since joining The Runner, this is the first time I've been a part of a project in my community. Of course, we were able to create content virtually for a few semesters, but I think bringing back the print publication will really help us engage with our audience, the students, faculty and staff."

Vada Hepner, The Runner's editor-in-chief for publications, also works part time for The Californian as a page designer and copy editor.

"To me, the print product just feels a lot more real than a digital product," Hepner said.

There's something about seeing her work in print — in ink on the page — that makes her feel that she has achieved something, Hepner said.

"I'm going to save every paper I design," she said. "I already have a nice stack going."

As staffers made their rounds on campus, they smiled and held up copies for the camera. Many workers in offices where the papers were distributed also said they were glad to see The Runner back in print.

"I think it's a great opportunity for our students," said Robert Frakes, dean of CSUB's School of Arts and Humanities.

"They did amazing work during the last two years, during the pandemic, to produce it digitally," he said.

"They had to adapt — and they did that."

But there's nothing like using paper to produce a newspaper, Frakes said. It's tangible. You can hold it in your hands. You can share it physically.

"It's wonderful that they now have the opportunity to produce a print version," he said.

It is especially significant considering how many colleges and universities are dropping print editions altogether, Burger said.

"My own alma mater, Sac State, stopped print before COVID," she said.

Print makes a physical connection with readers that digital does not, she said.

Even for student journalists, another layer of care, another layer of urgency, seems to go into publishing a print product.

"And once it's in print," Burger said, "it's permanent."

Reporter Steven Mayer can be reached at 661-395-7353. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter: @semayerTBC.