The Daily Pennsylvanian Alumni Association

One month.

It’s hard to believe it’s only been one month since the world suddenly changed. I started to write this report from the Home Office (see what I did there?) to the DP alumni community almost as soon as Penn shut down, but we were all being inundated with emails from CEOs of every company we’ve ever done business with and adjusting to life unlike anything we’ve ever experienced, so I figured you didn’t need to hear from me right away.

But a month into our collective isolation seemed like a good time to reach out, to say hello, to extend my best wishes that you and your family are doing well, and to give you a brief update on how your favorite college newspaper is faring during this crisis.

What the DP has been doing.

When Penn announced on March 11 it was sending students home and requiring all-but-essential staff to work from home, it was immediately apparent that the DP was also in for radical change. The DP’s Board of Directors, in a conference call that night, affirmed the obvious: there would be no purpose in continuing to produce and deliver a printed edition of the DP to a locked-down and mostly empty campus.

But before stilling the presses, we decided to produce a final print edition — only the third (non-Homecoming) Saturday edition of the DP in the past 50+ years — as students and some faculty and staff visited campus to retreive their possessions for the work-at-home period to follow. Being an observer on the sidelines as that historic issue came into being was exciting and exhilarating, and I think would have brought a smile to the face of every DP alum. There was only one student in the DP office; everyone else was scattered around the country. Design editors built pages on their computers while about 30 editors, associate editors and reporters communicated via Slack on everything from story ideas to headline writing to fact checking to copy editing to reviewing page proofs in a race to meet an early press deadline. In the best of DP traditions, we missed the deadline… but only by a little bit, and the “Last DP” hit campus early that Saturday morning. 

With DP print editions gone, no one took their foot off the gas. Over the past four weeks, the DP has continued publishing content on its website every day. The news department has been busy covering multiple changes to grading for online courses, cancellation of on-campus summer courses, students losing summer internships and research positions, ups and downs of online courses, Penn’s role in COVID-19 treatment and drug research, payment for Penn and sub-contracted employees, and myriad other aspects of the impact of coronavirus crisis on the Penn community. The DP’s free “Dear Penn” email newsletter has continued to publish to 10,000 subscribers every weekday morning, along with the paid parent- and alumni-focused Weekly Roundup newsletter every Sunday. 

On the business side, the combination of no print editions, all University events being cancelled, and many local businesses being closed or struggling, has led to a sharp dropoff in revenue. Digital ads on the website, in the email newsletters, and in social media channels keeps some money coming in, but the loss of revenue from March through May, typically our strongest advertising months, will likely hit $100,000.

How you can help.

I can’t deny it’s been a challenge setting up a virtual newsroom in bedrooms and dens across the country. But the DP is strong, and we’ll get through this — with your help.

While we’re not currently paying for pizza in the newsroom every night, we have significant fixed expenses including rent, payroll, insurance, website and other digital services, and student scholarships, and I am reaching out to ask DP alumni to help us weather this storm by making a contribution to the DP.  

Through our 135 years, we’ve managed to deliver the news; through the intolerable and impossible, adjusting our operations when needed, but never compromising our commitment to serve the Penn community. Today’s uncertain world is no different and neither are we. The role that we play as a news organization is even more crucial than ever, as is our mission to successfully prepare and provide for the students who are the future of journalism, media and business. The need to support our organization is great, because the need for our organization has never been greater.

Can I count on your contribution today? Click here to make a donation to support the DP.

Thank you, and be well. 

Eric Jacobs ’80
DP General Manager

P.S. To those of you wondering, “haven’t you retired?”, as you can see, I’m still here! Like everything else in our lives, finding my replacement has been put on hold during this crisis. (We were just a few days away from interviews of our finalist candidates when our part of the world locked down.) As the restrictions on what we can do start to ease in the months ahead, we’ll get back to the task of selecting a new General Manager and beginning a transition process which will span many months. So you’ll still be hearing from me for a while longer!

Dear DPAA Family,

It’s hard to believe that it was 33 years ago when I first walked through the doors at 4015 Walnut St. to start my journalism career at The DP. Today, I am a political reporter at The Washington Post, and I’m proud to serve as the new president of the DPAA — a role that has allowed me to reconnect with old friends, recall fond memories, mentor a new generation of young journalists and do my part to protect and preserve an institution that must continue to shine a light on the Penn community.

We have entered a time of transition and innovation at the DP and DPAA. The student staff is working hard to keep pace with a rapidly changing industry while also paying close attention to the fundamentals of journalism. We hired Steven Molberger as our new development director, with a focus on helping secure the DP’s financial future. And of course we are preparing for departure later this year of our beloved general manager, Eric Jacobs.

With all this change comes opportunity. Our organization has arrived at a crucial moment that requires leadership, strategic thinking and a willingness to lay the foundation for a more prosperous future. It also requires more engagement from our alumni community.

Over the course of the next year you will begin to see changes and adjustments to how we position our organization. One of our goals is to create a more meaningful alumni experience. Another is to secure the DP’s future.

I’ve been excited discussing future plans with Steven, and I hope many of you will get to know him in the coming months and years. Steven has been on board for only a few weeks, but he has already developed a framework to strengthen our purpose and understanding of what the DP can do for us and what we can do for the DP, called the 4 C’s of DPAA Participation:

Connection
Stay in touch and informed about all things related to the DP and DPAA

Commitment
Provide resources and time to ensure the best student experience possible

Celebration
Share your achievements and help to recognize others 

Career Support
Receive mentorship and guidance from our esteemed network of DP Alumni

Our goal is ambitious: to position the DP with the necessary resources and alumni engagement to be the best college newspaper in the country. I know we can do this. In my three years on the DPAA Board, I’ve connected with enough of you to know what we all share: a deep and abiding fondness for The Daily Pennsylvanian. 

Please stay tuned for more news on how you can be a part of this exciting period of change.

Warmly,

Amy Gardner ’90
DPAA President

After a year of evaluation, planning and searching, the DP Board of Directors in December hired the organization’s first-ever Director of Development to shepherd and drive the organization’s expanded fundraising efforts. DP Alumni: meet Steven Molberger, who you’ll be hearing from regularly in our alumni communications going forward.

Steven most recently worked for YSC Academy, a private school in the Philadelphia suburbs for budding soccer stars, where he raised more than $3 million over 18 months as the school’s inaugural development director. He previously worked for UJA-Federation of New York, as Director of Development for American Field Service’s US organization, and as Director of Annual Giving for Hofstra University. 

Following a decade-long decline in advertising revenue that mirrors the newspaper industry overall, the DP Board has positioned fundraising as a second pillar of revenue needed to support the DP’s operations in future decades. The decision to hire a full-time development professional was one of the key recommendations which emerged from a six-month study by a nationally renowned consulting firm last year.

“I’m excited to have Steven join our team,” said DP General Manager Eric Jacobs. “After working together for just a few weeks, he’s been immersed in the history, culture, and impact the DP has on both the Penn community and the alumni who have worked here, and I think he’ll do a great job in working improving and expanding our outreach to DP alumni.”

Molberger is similarly enthusiastic about the future. “There seem to be so many opportunities for alumni engagement in the things the DP is doing,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to talking to DP alumni about their DP experiences, and how we can better engage alumni in advancing the DP’s mission.”

Many DP alumni will be hearing from Molberger directly in the weeks and months ahead, but if you want to share with him the meaning the DP has had in your life, or any thoughts or ideas you have, you can reach out to him at molberger@theDP.com or call 215-422-4645.

As we have done each December for many years, the DPAA Board of Directors has published an Annual Report on the activities of the Alumni Association in 2019. The report was sent via postal mail to all DP alumni who have mailing addresses on file with the DP; a PDF version of the report is available by clicking here.

The DPAA regularly posts news about our alumni on the DPAA Facebook page DPAA Facebook page and emails news about the DP and DPAA several times each year. But in an effort to not lose touch with alumni who may not regularly follow the DPAA online, as well as to have a place each year to recognize and thank the alumni who have contributed to the DP and DPAA, we send this report, along with our annual membership appeal, at the end of each year.

2019 was an active year for the DPAA. The signature event was our second-ever alumni reunion on campus this past October, with nearly 250 alumni, guests and students in attendance. We also launched a new DP Alumni Hall of Fame, inducted an inaugural class of honorees, and presented the first-ever DP Young Alumni Award. We announced that longtime DP General Manager Eric Jacobs will be retiring in 2020, that the DP will hire a first-ever full-time Director of Development to elevate our fundraising efforts, and the formation of a student/alumni committee to define job descriptions and conduct searches for both positions. We selected Amy Gardner to replace Marty Siegel as President of the DPAA. And there’s more! Please click the link to read the PDF report if you didn’t receive it in the mail at the end of the year.

If you are a DP alum who did not receive the mailing, please email the DPAA with your current address, or simply click the “Join the DPAA” button on the right side of this website to enter your contact information to update what we have on file.

Feedback on the Annual Report, including suggestions for future editions or other communications you’d like to see from us, is welcome — just email dpaa@theDP.com.