Earlier this summer we began redesigning Currents in preparation for next year. The redesign is nearly complete and we will soon turn our attention to adding more content partners. We want to take this opportunity to share some information about the changes we have made.
First, we have updated our RSS feed. To continue getting RSS updates make sure that you update your reader to use feeds.feedburner.com/claremontcurrents.
Second, we added advertising. We made this decision because Currents loses money. We have been paying for hosting. We have been paying for our domain. We have spent hundreds of hours of our own time coding. And we were doing it all for free. As we see it, we had 3 options:
- Follow Rupert Murdoch and make Currents subscription based.
- Request money from student governments
- Advertising
A subscription model isn’t viable because one of Currents’s greatest values is the way that it serves as a portal for Claremont-related news. Because all Claremont news is free, this would be a tough sell.
Student government funding is more viable than a subscription model but would hinder Currents’s ability to serve its readers. In addition to aggregation of Claremont news, Currents has a standing offer to all members of the community to host blogs without regard to content or viewpoint. Because we do not edit or screen the writings of our partners, we cannot currently comply with the regulations (with regards to covering elections, bias-related speech, etc.) that would accompany that money.
Ads can be a pain in the butt, but we believe they are the best option to help us afford to maintain Currents. We will endeavor to keep the ads we serve focused and reasonable, and welcome any comments or feedback about them. They probably won’t cover all of our costs, but it will help a lot.
Sincerely,
Jeremy and Jonathan
