From print to reels: How student journalists are crafting news for the digital age
In 2025, the sight of a steaming cup of coffee and a freshly printed newspaper on a kitchen table is a rare snapshot of a bygone era. Journalists of the past quarter-century have seen newspapers and magazines grapple with declining circulation in a world driven by digital media, and younger generations are forcing publications to adapt to the digital age or risk irrelevance.
Three of the highest-circulation daily papers in the country, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, have seen a significant decrease in print subscriptions and website audience traffic since the mid-2000s, according to research by the Pew Research Center. The estimated total daily newspaper circulation in 2022 was 20.9 million for both weekdays and Sundays, down by 8% and 10%, respectively, from the year before.
Readership among young people is negligible, with only 5% of Gen Z reading local newspapers every day. Instead, Gen Z — and millennials — overwhelmingly turn to online sources, particularly social media platforms.
“People are spending their time seeing the news through quick headlines or on Instagram or TikTok,” said Sam Shipman, the assistant news editor at The Berkeley Beacon, Emerson College’s student-run publication. “The idea of doing social media and trying to put stuff on Instagram is to reintroduce people into being good news consumers.”
Instead of strategizing ways to make young people read print, Shipman is aiming to “meet them in the middle.” He’s spent his tenure writing and producing short-form videos for the Beacon’s various social media accounts, an effort he credits for a significant uptick in student engagement.
“The reason those stories are interesting is because there’s visually a lot going on,” said Shipman, 19, a journalism major from Natick. “We have the privilege and the technology and the talent to revolutionize how we interest people.”
Student journalists at Northeastern University and Boston University have similarly tailored their reporting to a mobile-first audience. Each paper has established new leadership positions, allowing those interested in social media to find out what actually works.
“We do a monthly print, but that’s really not what people are reading,” said Alison Cook, the multimedia editor at The Daily Free Press, Boston University’s student-run publication. “I put content on the Instagram account either as a story or a grid post, and that’s really where we’re growing.”
Like Shipman, Cook said her team has seen success in their use of short-form video. She helps produce a weekly series about activities in and around the city, an undertaking partially responsible for increasing The Free Press’ Instagram following by 11.7% since early September last year.
Several videos have done particularly well, said Cook, who relies heavily on engagement analytics when judging the success of her posts. One racked up more than 50,000 views, and another brought the paper 158 new followers.
“Instead of just reading about something you can do in the city this weekend, you’re reading short bullets that are easily digestible while watching a video of someone walk down Newbury Street,” said Cook, a 20-year-old journalism and media science major from Farmington, New York. “It’s engaging, it brings you there.”
Reporters at The Huntington News, Northeastern University’s student-run publication, have also been honing the paper’s social media presence. Annika Sunkara, the paper’s social media editor, said she spent a year revamping the paper’s Instagram reels. She observed a relatively short average watch time during a previous tenure as audiovisual editor, and decided to implement a new approach.
“Before, our videos started with an editor speaking to the camera. I figured we could try a cold open where the very first shot is one of the editors talking to somebody on the street, so they know it’s not just us lecturing them as much as interacting with students, the people that we serve,” said Sunkara, 20, who noted that her changes boosted the average watch time from six seconds to 10.
Despite the success of disseminating news through social media, many student journalists have struggled with the limitations of graphics and reels. Short videos often lack the depth needed to tackle complex stories, and integrating traditional reporting elements, such as phone interviews, into multimedia formats remains a challenge.
“Print has the best way of describing the facts,” said Shipman. “There’s literally just more words that you can use to talk about the story than broadcast.”
Shipman operates under the belief that social media is only supplementary to the articles that dozens of student journalists devote their time to reporting and writing. Cook agreed, noting that the ultimate goal of any post is to lead viewers to the paper’s website.
“I love to have all-encompassing posts because people aren’t as inclined to click the link and externally go to the website as they are to sit on social media,” said Cook. “But, that isn’t the focus of The Daily Free Press. The focus is the articles that we’re publishing, and [although] social media is the primary means of getting news, it’s just an additional thing.”
To avoid an audience that relies too heavily on social media, journalists at Northeastern have developed systems to lead viewers to their websites for full articles. A recurring news quiz posted to the paper’s Instagram account was employed to maintain audience interest and encourage deeper engagement.
“Each answer slide has a link to that story,” said Sunkara. “It’s an opportunity to tell people they should subscribe to our newsletter if they want to score high.”
Across all three publications, student journalists are proving that innovation is key to survival. Social media has provided an accessible gateway for interactive posts, and those leading the movement have ambitious plans for the future.
“Reels are still constantly developing and I think they’ll only continue to grow,” said Sunkara. “Social [media] has completely transformed into its own thing.”
