Founded in 1991, Legacy Magazine has given students at Louisiana State University the chance to tell stories that matter to them through in-depth, long form and investigative writing. The fall 2018 edition, published in October, was the magazine’s last as an outlet of LSU Student Media.

After the LSU Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a $2 student media fee cut on Nov. 2, LSU Student Media Director John Friscia made the executive decision to discontinue publication of the magazine.

Prior to going before the Board of Supervisors, LSU Student Government recommended a review of Legacy Magazine and the Gumbo Yearbook, along with the cut in fees.

“We’ve worked the numbers every way we could, but the sad fact is there’s no way [Student Media] can move forward and keep the Legacy going,” Friscia said in a Nov. 28 email to student editors. The magazine’s high print cost and lack of advertising revenue were the main contributing factors in the cut, he said.

The decision making process failed to include explicit discussions with student leaders.

Student media funding is based on student fees along with advertising revenue. A $2 cut for an operation funded mostly by student fees is detrimental to any future progress student media can hope to have. Though Legacy was printed twice annually the past couple years, it was formerly published eight times a year before decreasing to four.  Legacy’s resources were continually depleted and rarely helped, despite students’ best efforts.

Ahead of the fall 2018 semester, we, student editors, redesigned Legacy’s workflow structure to increase our brand visibility and campus presence. We published online content every week, including feature stories, events calendars and media recommendations.

Subsequently, Legacy had its best semester in years. Our digital analytics were consistently on-par with those of fellow outlets The Daily Reveille and TigerTV, and we received positive feedback from students and faculty on our print issue.

We created this updated version of Legacy Magazine in hopes of continuing the publication’s survival.

While Legacy has primarily served as an arts and culture publication in the past, we knew it was a medium where longform and investigative stories thrive. With the resources to produce this type of journalism, we published hard-hitting news and in-depth sports features, along with our consistent entertainment content.

From the plight of student mothers, to an inside look at LSU cheer, to the substandard conditions of on-campus housing, these powerful stories needed to be told and students deserved a platform through which to tell them.
Journalism is more important now than ever, and we take our directive seriously: to be objective, factual and relentless storytellers and help our readers better understand the world around them.

In student media, we are given the opportunity to create a product that’s entirely our own. Producing a magazine from scratch is a visually creative, informative and artistic experience that differs from experiences found at other types of news outlets. It’s a learning process — one we grow from and pass to incoming students. We take the skills gained from working as student journalists and utilize them to obtain internships, fellowships and jobs in our field, specifically magazine publications and print media. Without these vital outlets in student media, getting these competitive opportunities would undoubtedly be more difficult.

The loss of Legacy Magazine, or any collegiate publication, is a disservice to its students and community.

Despite the loss to LSU and student media, we created something we hoped everyone on campus would enjoy and could relate to. We want to thank our staff, our sources and most importantly, you — our readers — for supporting us in putting everything on the line during our final semester as Legacy Magazine.

Taylor Oliver, Editor in Chief fall 2018

Ramsina Odisho, Creative Director fall 2018

Lauren Heffker, Managing Editor fall 2018

Readers can direct any questions, comments or inquiries to [email protected] or call 225-578-1697.