For the first time in about 10 years, Buckham Hall has been blessed by the crisp sound of students flipping through the newspaper. But it’s not just any old newspaper.
A physical copy of “The Record Spring Semester Edition 2026” is now available for all student journalism-savvy folks far and wide. Six whole jam-packed pages of articles, photos, and even some print-exclusive items like a crossword live on the unalterable pages.
The combined average daily print circulation at 25 of the largest audited newspapers in the US fell by 12.5% in the six months before the end of September 2025, according to research done by the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM), in a report by Alice Brooker of Press Gazette.
So it’s no secret that newspapers are a dying medium, and when you think of a school newspaper, you think of weekly hard copy issues. But the digital age changed the way that a lot of publications, including The Record, do business.
In this publication’s case, on Sept. 19, 2012, then Executive Editor Brandon Schlager posted the first-ever story to buffstaterecord.com. Four years later, on Nov. 30, 2016, then Managing Editor Dan Almasi posted the story titled, “The end of an era: The Record goes digital.” This marked the end of the print era… or so we thought.
Rumblings of bringing back a print copy never fully died down. With it being a whole decade later, curiosity for not only how to make a newspaper arose, but also the desire to experience the feeling of actually holding all of our hard work.
For months, the idea of bringing back print ruminated in the mind of Managing Editor and Treasurer of The Record, Grace Cole. With support from all the members, she set out to make this thing happen, but it wouldn’t be easy.
“We don’t exactly have any seasoned vets on our team that know how the print business works,” Cole said. “I used Google Docs because I don’t know what software you’re supposed to use.”
She essentially had to rebuild the issue from scratch with the help of a scattered filing cabinet full of previous issues of The Record and her experience organizing her high school’s paper.
Old issues of The Record included photos, games, cartoons, and comics. For as nice as a website is, you lose the stuff that gives a newspaper its charm. You know, the stuff that makes the newspaper the newspaper.
“The website and app make our publication really accessible, but it doesn’t naturally draw in attention,” Cole said. “Prints are always there to slap you in the face.”
With cobwebs collecting on our supplies budget, Cole took to the Buffalo State University Design and Print Center downstairs in Bulger Communication Center. This is where the magic happened.
After countless hours spent adjusting margins, adding photos, and making sure everything was just right, Cole admits she’s a perfectionist when it comes to this stuff. Hard copies of The Record were shooting out the end of the printer, and they weren’t just hot off the press, they were just straight up HOT! Vibrant colors, high-quality photos, and the two words, “The Record,” beautifully sat at the top of the issue.
“I was really excited seeing them come off the printer,” Cole said. “In the end, it’s nice to see all those tiny details come out very nicely, and it’s very special.”
Once we had the papers back at the office, the pursuit to distribute began. All of us took armfuls of copies for parents, family, friends, and professors. A copy for anyone and everyone we could think of. An inviting paper rack now hangs on the door of our office in Buckham Hall for people –including you! — to snag a copy.
“It’s awesome that we collaborated on something that I can send to my mom in North Carolina,” Devin Hogan, vice president of The Record, said. “Grace had this idea, and it came to full fruition. It’s something that I really appreciate about her.”
We were finally a newspaper again! Well, we were always a newspaper, but this time it felt real. We even brought copies up and down Elmwood Avenue to spread the word about the student journalism being done right here at Buffalo State.
“It feels good to be back, baby,” Marcus Ramos, president of The Record, said. “I knew we needed print because print is the best way to expose people to not just our journalism, but journalism in general.”
It’s funny how the switch to technology makes us yearn for the old ways of doing things. Phones are the future — oh wait, scratch that, people are actually sick of their phones now! Is there truly a right answer for journalism going forward? I’ll let Grace close things out with her perspective.
“Don’t forget your roots,” she said. “It’s nice just to be able to make conversation with someone and be like, here, this is something we created.”
