Daily Egyptian (DE), the student publication of Southern Illinois University-Carbondale (SIUC), publishes an eight-page 12x18 paper everyday. The first time I heard about this, I was really amazed because it was: 1) a very difficult feat for student journalists, 2) it really costs a lot.

I wasn’t surprised that DE is working with an annual budget of around $1.5M. What is shocking is that all of the money comes from advertisements that cover around half of the entire issue.


I have been a student journalist for more than seven years. And the idea of putting advertisements on the pages of campus publications isn’t new to me. After all, the reality is that mainstream newspapers earn more from advertisements than subscriptions.

Another reality, however, is that campus publications aren’t part of this mainstream group.

A lot of student publications in the Philippines accept the notion that paid advertisements, especially from politicians and major corporations, have no space in our pages. It’s partly cultural, as Filipinos have the tradition of feeling indebted to someone who ‘helps’ them. It’s quite evident with the mainstream media, where they usually block negative stories if it concerns their major advertisers.

Most student papers, especially the progressive ones, simply do not want pressure and manipulation from these sectors. That’s very different from the views of some journalists that I talked to here in the US. They say the media remains free despite the presence of advertisers.

I don’t know if that’s true. If we’re to assume that it is, well, to put it bluntly, it works quite different in the Philippines.