Some campuses are starting to require that students bring a PC with them when they start school. More and more college dorms have Ethernet connections supporting fast Internet access wired into every room. Libraries, student unions, classroom buildings and dorms typically have computer clusters where students can use PCs to access the Internet. If newspaper publishers are worried about the effect that a nearly totally wired population might have on their print products someday, they might look at college newspapers today. But my research would indicate that there's not a lot to worry about.
Students are as likely to pick up the free college newspaper today as they've ever been.
The difference now is that they also may go to the Web to look up an old story on the paper's archive, or look online when a major breaking event occurs to see what the newspaper staff has put up in advance of tomorrow's print edition. Every student gets a default e-mail address upon starting school, plus unlimited Web access and a personal Web page. Yet the printed edition of the Harvard Crimson retains its historical readership, according to Crimson president Matthew Granade . Granade notes that many Harvard students read the New York Times Web edition, which is free. That's not to say that the Crimson isn't taking the Web very seriously.