Ken Doctor's discussion of The Oregon Daily Emerald is fascinating and kickstarts a larger conversation about how to better integrate insights, talent and support from these emerging media companies.

(This is my first Branch post. Exciting!)

I like the general idea of learning lessons from college media orgs, but Doctor leaves out a discussion of audience. College papers can take these risks because they have an audience that's:

1) Captive. Most college papers have few, if any, competitors.
2) Stable. The target audience will always comprise of 18-22-year-olds and academics.
3) Adaptable. Students and academics are nimble readers. There's also an element of open-mindedness in these demographics. They're likely to transform the way in which they consume media.
4) Largely, privileged. I don't think the 60% iOS-user stat referenced by the UCLA rep would be useful to the Times-Picayune, for example, or any other big metro paper.