College papers overwhelmingly favor Obama

Barack Obama has garnered more than twice as many daily newspaper endorsements as John McCain, according to Editor and Publisher. But the results are even more lopsided for college newspapers: 65 to 1.

Of the 66 college newspapers counted in the E&P tally, only one -- The Daily Mississippian at the University of Mississippi -- endorsed McCain.

In its Oct. 28 endorsement, The Daily Mississippian agrees with McCain's argument that he is the more experienced of the two candidates.

"We feel Sen. McCain’s experience in foreign affairs and his decision to not raise taxes on anyone of any class of society makes him the clear choice for president," the editors write. "Sen. McCain has a history of stepping across party lines; the same cannot be said of Sen. Obama."

The editorial notes that the five editors on the editorial board were split on the decision.

The pro-McCain editorial was the most read story on The Daily Mississippian's Web site last week. At last count, 31 people had commented on it, offering a range of opinions.

Among the red-state college papers that endorsed Obama are The Louisville Cardinal at the University of Louisville, The Daily Gamecock at the University of South Carolina, the Daily Texan at the University of Texas-Austin, the Oklahoma Daily at the University of Oklahoma and The Optimist at Abeline Christian University. The Arizona Daily Wildcat at the University of Arizona, McCain's home state, also came out for Obama.

For a list of college newspaper endorsements, scroll down to the bottom of this article on E&P.

Facebook for College Newspapers

Sean Blanda, a magazine journalism major at Temple University and Webmaster for The Temple News, offers some useful tips in his blog post "How to use Facebook to leverage your college newspaper."

Blanda offers step-by-step instructions for creating a business page.

Several other campus newspapers are doing interesting things with Facebook. The Daily Mississippian at the University of Mississippi, for example, offers news updates on its Facebook page.

What's your student newspaper doing with Facebook? Have you created any cool applications? Are you using it to build readership or recruit staff? Post a message below.