Print or digital; tabloid or broadsheet. GXpress columnist Kevin Slimp says he is encouraged that the broadsheet format is once more gaining favour with an educated younger cohort.

The former director of Tennessee university’s newspaper academy, he was once responsible for a student newspaper called The Daily Beacon.

From a daily broadsheet, it was progressively cut to what he says was “more of a weekly entertainment tab”, with thoughts then, of being cut altogether.

Now The Beacon is shining bright… as an award-winning broadsheet with some serious advertising.

A meeting with editor-in-chief Caden Dyer and print managing editor Emily Hurst brought a smile to his face: Since late March, The Beacon has been back as a full broadsheet with a 3000-copy print order, a move Dyer says has been “incredibly positive.

“Not only do alumni love the broadsheet version, but also students who are active on campus “love the switch”.

She had suggested the format change three years ago after seeing the tab it had become. “It didn’t look like a newspaper to me,” she said.

The duo give credit to 2025 editor-in-chief Shelby Wright, credited for her creativity and, “always talking about moving to broadsheet”. Preparing for the change took a lot of effort, but Hurst says, “It was 100 per cent worth it.”

One real surprise was the increase in advertising revenue: “With the switch to broadsheet, we got some really big money ads.

“One ad, Google Gemini was US$2000 per issue.”

With the great support of the dean of the college of communications and information, about 2600 copies of the paper are racked throughout campus, and Slimp was told that more people were reading the paper now that it’s in print in addition to being online.

“I would think so,” was Hurst’s emphatic answer. She said the conversion to broadsheet made the staff work harder across all aspects, which helped boost readership. “It can’t be overlooked that our reporting as gotten more serious this year, but our journalism is just more impactful. We’re covering hard news and topics that people actually care about. When we started, the Beacon was more of a feature publication. Now it’s an actual newspaper.”

Asked how students had responded to the new broadsheet version of the newspaper, Hurst – who has been on staff four years, and has seen the complete turnaround – says she remembers when she would tell her friends I was working at the newspaper, and they would ask what it was called, something she could understand because of its lack of content to encourage reader engagement.

“The conversion to broadsheet makes our newspaper look so much more professional, reliable and interesting,” she said. “I think the move to broadsheet has moved people to do better work.”

Slimp says when asked “these two early-20s journalists for advice for a newspaper considering dropping print and moving everything online, they responded quickly.

“Don’t!” was Emily’s immediate response, he said.

Dyer said there was nothing like seeing someone’s face light up when they open the newspaper and see their face there: “Nothing quite recrates the feeling of printing the newspaper, then walking around campus, showing it to my friends.

“A printed newspaper is something incredibly special, and as the whole world switches to digital and everything becomes the same, news organisations have the chance to do something different and stand out. Keeping the newspaper in print is incredibly important.”

She says she has a belief that one day the internet might crash, “and just be gone”,” and thinks that having printed editions of things is important for historical preservation. “I completely agree with her that having a print edition is incredibly important,” says Slimp. “It’s very special to see people hold the printed newspaper and see that they’re in it.”

What should journalists learn from the conversion back to broadsheet? Dyer wanted people to know how important it was, touching lives on a regular basis. “Our broadsheet transition is the pinnacle of what we accomplished this year as a team.”
Both women praised new advisor Cheryl Welch, whose journalism background “has made such a difference”.

The Daily Beacon recently was named “best collegiate newspaper in the South”, and was placed third in the US in 2026 for collegiate media.

See Kevin Slimp’s regular column here

Pictured top: Pages from The Beacon and one of the Google ads they booked; (above left) Hurst and (right) Dyer