Tonight at Terrace Club the Nassau Weekly will host "Save the Nass," a party to raise money toward repaying a debt of several thousand dollars that may cause the publication to fold.
Though Editor-in-Chief Ari Samsky '03 said it was unlikely the "Nass" would cease to publish in the fall, he said it was a "legitimate possibility" and that the publication was taking steps to amend the situation.
Samsky said the "Nass" expected to raise several hundred dollars, possibly $1,000, but it had not set its sights high. A $5 donation is suggested at the door and the publication will sell t-shirts to raise additional funds.
Samsky said the publication has a debt of between 3,000 and 7,000 dollars to the Princeton Packet, which publishes the magazine weekly. When the current staff took over the publication in January, it was unaware of its magnitude of debt to the Packet, co-editor Alex Rosenfeld '03 said.
"We've been in debt for the past couple years," Rosenfeld said.
He said some of the staffs in the mid-1990s were irresponsible, in one case taking some of the revenue and using it to go to Las Vegas. He also said that the yearly staff turnover has resulted in inconsistency on the business side.
"A lot of the money that should be accruing to help in bad times has not," Rosenfeld said.
Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne has assumed the debt in the interim while the publication attempts to raise money and improve its business operation, Samsky said. Student groups seeking debt relief can approach the USG project board, which serves as a clearinghouse for University funding.
"Dean Dunne doesn't expect us to make $7,000," Samsky said. "He's not out to shut us down."
Dunne said the "Nass" had an "extenuating circumstance" because during its time at the University it has been one of the more financially stable publications.
"From time to time we will get a group that rarely asks for project board funding, a group that traditionally does not need it with specific circumstances," Dunne said of publications like the Nass.
Dunne said following Sept. 11, "a lot of the publications that count on community and local ad revenue really saw a a drop off." In general, Dunne said the situation has usually been more favorable for larger and more frequent publications like the "Nass" and The Daily Princetonian.
Dunne added students interested in working for campus publications generally gravitate more toward the editorial side than the business side. The distribution of staff makes it more difficult for publications to have large advertising operations and raise revenue.
However, a recent decrease in advertisement revenue and a few cases of mismanaged billing pushed the "Nass" into debt. "Mostly [the problem] is just not getting ads," Samsky said.
Samsky attributed part of the debt problem to the lackluster economy, which has resulted in the loss of several national advertisements.
The situation has slowly begun to improve due to a large advertisement drive oriented toward local businesses.
However, Rosenfeld said the economy still poses a large problem for the "Nass."
"With the economy there is only so much you can do," Rosenfeld said.
The "Nass" also recently embarked on an alumni fundraising effort and has sent letters to between 300 and 500 alumni requesting contributions.
Samsky is optimistic about the outcome of the drive. He mentioned an individual donor and alum of the "Nass" — Robert Fagan '57 — who is interested in "making a generous donation."
Rosenfeld said he also has confidence in new business head Clay Bavor '05 who will attempt to build a larger business staff for the publication.
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