Ad buy ‘stays execution’ of Louisville’s student newspaper

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A last-minute ad buy has saved the University of Louisville’s independent student newspaper from folding.

News outlets report the university’s interim president, Greg Postel, pledged $25,000 in advertising from the university’s budget on Tuesday, keeping Louisville from being the lone Atlantic Coast Conference school without a student newspaper.

The Louisville Cardinal’s future became uncertain in September 2017, when university officials announced that a tight budget meant they would no longer purchase advertising, which has accounted for as much as 40 percent of the publication’s income.

The chair of the paper’s board of directors, Jenni Laidman, says she’s happy the university could come up with the additional funding, but compared the $25,000 to a “stay of execution,” saying the 91-year-old newspaper is “still operating on a knife-edge.”