A Web site for students and friends of journalism
© 2010 William A. Mulligan, Ph.D. All rights reserved.
Professor of Journalism, former department chairman
California State University, Long Beach
49er History Update
J-pros
identified
problems
LONG BEACH, Calif., March 7, 2010 — “Project
Forty-Niner,” a feasibility study written, funded and published by this writer
in 2008 to look at the future of Forty-Niner publications at Cal State Long
Beach, recommended that the newspaper and magazine begin anew by shutting down
and reorganizing.
The study recommended that the publications
board be reorganized to eliminate conflicts of interest, including that of the
office of vice president of student services, Doug Robinson, as a voting member
choosing the chief editors of the publications.
The study, a 500-page book, also found that
the vice president’s office has made large financial contributions to the
newspaper. The study was presented to the journalism department chairman and
the College of Liberal Arts dean in May 2008.
A group of professionals met at the CSULB,
also know as Long Beach State, campus in a focus group January 2008 to identify
the problems. The author also used ethical and statistical contributors’
expertise in the analysis and in the reporting of “Project Forty-Niner’s” investigative
findings.
Publication data from 32 U.S. universities were analyzed in the study.
FOCUS GROUP
The focus group professionals were:
—Michael A. Anastasi, managing editor, The Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah, a California State
University, Long Beach, graduate with a major in print journalism. He was
previously the award-winning sports editor of the Daily News, Los Angeles. He
was once editor of the Summer Forty-Niner.
—John Canalis, assistant editor, Press-Telegram, Long Beach, a CSULB graduate with a major in print journalism, and an instructor in the journalism department.
Once editor of the Daily Forty-Niner, he did internships at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Los Angeles Times and United Press International, Los Angeles, while at Cal State Long Beach.
—Jamie Eggleston, production manager, Daily Forty-Niner publications, CSULB. The journalism staff member with experience dating back to the early days of the department, retired in 2009.
—Gerard Greenidge, Web Services manager and Web master, California StateUniversity Chancellor’s Office, a former Web master of the Online Forty-Niner and a graduate of CSULB with a degree in computer science.
HISTORY UPDATE
Daily 49er delivery delayed, to Friday, 13th, for anniversary
LONG BEACH, Calif. (March 10, 2010) — The 60th anniversary issue of the Daily Forty-Niner at Cal State Long Beach was not delivered by 9:15 p.m. Nov. 12.
The paper's 60th anniversary events were Friday, Nov. 13, 2009.
Stacks of bundles of undelivered newspapers are stacked neatly in the newspapers old darkrooms, Room 007, Social Sciences and Public Affairs Building, at Cal State Long Beach.
The paper has advertisements, including ads from The Wall Street Journal, the College of Liberal Arts, the university president's office, the journalism department itself and others for the event.
One ad, a full page from this writer that contained the editorial on free expression from the first issue, edited by Ted Clucas, Nov. 11, 1949, is among the advertisements in the anniversary issue.
"The school heads have promised not to stifle student expression in any way,” the editorial stated. “They expect it to represent the majority of the students.
"That’s all we want, too, so there can’t be any trouble there,” the editorial stated.
The issue does not have the day's news except for its birthday and
was not posted Nov. 12.
Page One text is unreadable.
“[I] don’t remember what happened that day,” the head of Gardena Valley News, the printer, said. “Earlier in the week we had some problem with files.”
Forty-Niner General Manager Beverly Munson said, “The printer received book stock from supplier that would not fold in the printing press.”
The paper posted no information about the delay.
STUDENT PRESS prior restraint became an issue in 2002 with the Long Beach State Daily 49er student newspaper. The ad was approved by Mark Goodman, director of the Student Press Law Center, and 49er Chief Editor Michael Watanabe. The publisher was dismissed in January 2003 after the newspaper published the ad, for which he paid, on Dec. 16, 2001. See "Hard Times Hit Forty-Niner," Page 4.
Author's note
The "2006 History Update" is from a report on the future of the Daily 49er student newspaper and Dig Magazine — formerly University Magazine, which was published in "Project Forty-Niner: A Feasibility Study on Re-Vitalizing the Daily Forty-Niner and Dig Magazine," published in 2008.
Preface
The 49er History Update, prepared in a short time, was the result of a request from the editors of the Daily Forty-Niner in August 2006 for the planned open house of the newspaper in September 2006.
The event was re-scheduled to November 2006 to mark the newspaper’s anniversary.
Produced in print format, the publication was posted for a few hours on the newspaper’s Web site before being removed by the editors for “technical reasons,” they said.
The publication was then made available by the author in print, CD, and download formats. The History has been repaginated as an appendix for Project Forty-Niner.
The name of Heidi Nye, a graduate of the Cal State Long Beach magazine journalism program and now a long-time instructor in the department, was omitted in the original publication in the article “Publishers, Advisers Serve 49er, Magazine.”
She served as publisher of University Magazine, now Dig Magazine, in fall 1988 and as adviser in spring 1993, the semester in which the magazine received first place for general excellence at the California
Intercollegiate Press Association (CIPA) meeting.
She wrote: “This was the issue in which Jane Hamilton's and Debra Rosenkrantz's CIPA-winning and Jane's Hearst-winning articles appeared. Rebecca Thompson, not Stephanie Wallace, served as editor that semester,” as reported in “Magazine Begun in 1976 … ,” republished in the 2007 History as a reprint from 49er Publications Manual, 2001, the 50th anniversary edition.
The “History” chapter from the 2001 Manual was republished in the 2007 History as “First 49er, Four Typewritten Pages Published by English, November 1949.” Lee Brown, Ph.D., in an e-mail to the author in regard to Dr. Samuel Wiley, stated:
“Although the history of the 49er that you wrote identifies Dr. Samuel Wiley as an English professor, he shows up only as a philosophy professor in the research I'm doing, and Samuel Wiley is listed as advisor (sic) in the 1950 49ers. He was also listed as chairman of the Division of Language Arts in the 62-63 college catalog.”
And, The “History” chapter in this Update reprint, under the headline “First 49er …,”is an edited version of the original in the Manual.
—William A. Mulligan, Ph.D.,
April 2008
