"Untouched:" The Ball State Daily News Plans to Sunset Weekly Newspaper, Shift to Digital-First Model
MUNCIE, Ind. (The CI) - “Thousands of newspapers are placed in racks across campus. And every week, most of them are still there, untouched, when the next edition arrives.”
According to The Ball State Daily News’ Executive Editorial Board, The Daily is sunsetting its legacy newspaper, shifting its focus to digital. The article announced the Board’s vote to “end the weekly print edition and transition to a digital-first newsroom starting fall 2026.”
According to the School of Journalism and Strategic Communications website, The Daily first started publishing as The Easterner in 1922, before rebranding to The Ball State News in 1937. The newspaper then rebranded to its current name in 1968.
“Thousands of newspapers are placed in racks across campus,” the Board wrote. “And every week, most of them are still there, untouched, when the next edition arrives.”
The Board noted that, “[u]nlike other collegiate student-led publications, this is not an issue of censorship that was made without student input,” rather, a financial decision made by student journalists, “following multiple conversations between university staff and Daily News leadership.”
The vote was unanimous and no University officials were present, according to the Board.
The Board declared “the weekly print paper has cost the organization more than $25,000 annually to produce, while generating very little advertising revenue.”
According to an APRA request, the Unified Media Lab, which publishes The Daily, received $118,456 in advertising revenue, with $218,250 in total funding from January 1, 2025 to October 10, 2025.
“At the same time, most of the 5,000 copies printed each week remain in racks by the next print cycle or end up in wastebins, which means the print content we have put our energy into goes unread on a weekly basis,” the Board stated. “Continuing to invest in a product that few people pick up and retain not only limits our ability to invest in audience engagement, but it is simply irresponsible.”
The Board cited the Pew Research Center and the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in their decision.
According to the Board, the shift to digital would bring in more multimedia storytelling and interactive reporting, and “better reflects the type of newsrooms today’s journalism students will enter after they graduate.”
While the weekly newspaper is going away, the Board states The Daily will publish special editions on print, “that will highlight Ball State’s campus population and the Muncie community in greater, more in-depth detail.”
The Board states the mission of The Daily isn’t the newspaper, rather, “the reporting and the commitment to documenting life at Ball State.”
“The stories will still be told,” the Board concluded. “They will just reach readers where they already are.”
The CI has reached out to Unified Media Lab Adviser Corey Ohlenkamp via email and phone for comment.