Oldest student paper struggles to survive

More than a century after it was launched by Robert Louis Stevenson as an independent voice for the literati of Edinburgh, Britain's oldest university newspaper has been forced to suspend publication because of rising debts.

The Student, which is the largest independent student publication reliant on advertising for survival, counts among its former correspondents Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Kitchener, David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill.

In the 1970s, Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, was the editor, working alongside Robin Cook, Leader of the Commons, who was in charge of film and concert reviews.

Since the 1990s the free weekly paper, founded by Stevenson in 1887, has been struggling with a deficit, which culminated in February with an inability to meet its printing costs after losing advertising last autumn.

Yesterday the students running the paper and its website counterpart vowed to overcome the financial problems and resume production next term. Chris Page, president of the newspaper society, said the paper had been running with debts of £12,000. "We have had to cancel all our issues this term and our last issue of last term." said the second-year politics student. "We owe the printers a considerable amount of money and this break allows us time to take a step back and look at our arrangements.

"Advertising was cut back around January but we were hit before by the downturn that followed September 11, which, combined with our existing debts, meant we couldn't publish. Every media organisation has felt the pinch since September 11 but unlike Rupert Murdoch, we don't have millions to fall back on.

"Our precarious financial position is the result of various circumstances, some of which date back quite a few years. The current staff of the paper are not responsible for the present troubles – but it is up to us to rise to the challenge."

Campus collections and fund-raising events such as "a 1,000-pint challenge" had reduced the deficit by £2,000. Further events, reducing the circulation from 10,000 and cutting the number of pages would allow printing to resume.

The paper is run as a separate society and is independent of the university or students' union, but under a new deal the union will take charge of the advertising.