The Wall Street Journal is back! Over the summer, HBS students were shocked to receive an email informing them that it was no longer cost effective for Baker Library to provide the free WSJ subscriptions in Aldrich. In a true case of “don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone,” students were traumatized at the loss of the morning paper that we all had come to take for granted as we picked it on our way to the Aldrich coffee cart before class.
In a response to the student outcry, SA Co-Presidents Jeff Liaw (OA) and Les Williams (OC) decided to do some research into exactly how much it would cost to provide the papers. The answer: $24,000. This figure approximates the annual cost of providing 400 daily subscriptions to the WSJ over the course of two semesters.
Senator Daveen Chopra (OH) then surveyed other top business schools in the nation to determine which schools, if any, did receive free morning newspapers. It turned out that only two other MBA programs have such programs: Tuck (which receives both the FT and the WSJ) and Wharton (which receives the FT).
Jeff Liaw took over the process from there, making contacts at Tuck to determine how the “free” newspaper distribution was funded. Jeff discovered that Tuck students benefited from the generosity of an outside sponsor: M&T Bank. It took only a quick call to recruiting representatives of M&T to secure a similar sponsorship for HBS. M&T, which is actively recruiting on campus this Fall, was more than happy to fill the gap left at HBS and agreed to provide this service to the HBS community.
So, thanks to M&T Bank and the SA, all is back to normal in the halls of Aldrich.
