The case of the missing Tower newspapers

Published by December 6, 2018

Some 2,000 copies of The Tower, Kean university’s independent campus newspaper, mysteriously disappeared from the Center for Academic Success in October, and then reappeared after staff was told it was a misunderstanding.  

Here’s what happened:  

For the past seven years, the paper has been printed by NJ Advance Media, which besides publishing the state’s largest newspaper, The Star-Ledger, also prints several other NJ college newspapers. 

 Every month, the student-run newspaper, which is part of the academic program in journalism, is delivered to the fourth floor of CAS at around 7 a.m. Tied bundles of the entire press run are left outside of The Tower’s small newsroom until students arrive to distribute. 

 It’s a routine that has been repeated for seven years.  

But on Oct. 25, Editor-in-Chief Joshua Rosario texted Prof Pat Winters Lauro to say several students were telling him that The Tower was never delivered. Lauro is the faculty adviser of The Tower with co-adviser Prof. Lois DeSocio.  

 Lauro contacted the printers, who advised her that the delivery was on time as usual. Rosario asked around in the building, and checked with maintenance, all to no avail.  

Online editor Rafaela Teixeira began uploading the front page to The Tower’s website, www.kutower.com.  

Meanwhile, the printer emailed proof they made its delivery, clearly showing the latest October issue. 

 Lauro responded that she did believe them, but that between the 7:15 drop-off and 9 a.m., someone had taken them. 

 The printers asked did we have cameras in the hallway to check. Rosario, whose father was a former police sergeant, told him to report it to the police. The press run is valued at about $2,000, and it is also a federal crime to destroy newspapers – a law put in place to prevent censorship. 

Then the printer contacted Lauro and said they would print The Tower again, free of charge.  

“We think students should have their newspapers,” the printer said in an email.  

So the next morning, Rosario got up at 5:30 a.m. and drove to Kean’s campus to personally accept the new press run of The Tower, all 2,000 copies.  

Rosario also went downstairs to talk to the head of maintenance at CAS about the papers.  

That’s when he was told that maintenance thought the bundles were meant for trash, and all the bundles were taken to recycling.  A worker got the recycling bin and returned the papers.  

Now The Tower had 4,000 copies of the October issue. Many were distributed, but if anyone wants to do a class on the importance of local news, The Tower has the papers for you!  

---