What's Next for Student Debt

On Monday, April 16, The Des Moines Register ran a front-page story (below the fold), titled “Rise in defaults renews ‘student debt bomb’ warnings”.  The story ran at the very bottom of the front page, just above the weather and price, receiving about four inches of vertical space that ran the total width of the page.  When redirected to page 8A, the “Register Special Report” consumes more than 75 percent of the page, with the main story and three accompanying stories dominating with a text-heavy layout.

The story covers issues of student debt nationally and locally, with the lede stating that Iowa has the fourth-largest default rate on student loans.  The highest percentage of delinquent buyers are individuals in their 30s, but the story emphasizes that people of all ages are defaulting on student loans, including senior citizens that owe more than $36 billion in loans, 5 percent of which is past due.  The main issue woven throughout the facts is that debt defaults are nearly doubling each year, and knowing that interest rates will increase this summer, economists are worried that it will negatively affect the financial market.

The three accompanying stories profile three individuals who have been negatively affected in different ways by having to pay back student loans. 

While the content is well written and timely, the way in which the news editor decided to present this story is a bit confusing.  The largest story run that day dealt with the past weekend’s tornado destruction, with “BATTERED” running across the page and a very large picture of the destruction right underneath the headline.  I will agree that readers are likely more interested in the storms’ damage to towns surrounding the area, but the space the student debt story received is not advertised in a way that attracts readers to the story or its accompanying stories on page 8A.

When the reader opens to 8A, the eye has no place to go.  The subheadline is small, the only visuals are tiny mugshots of the profiled individuals, and the layout is awkward and text heavy. 

For such a large story, I could only find one questionable sentence that both a copyeditor and page editor should have considered revising.  The sentence, “Many factors increase the likelihood of default, including working full time while enrolled, taking classes part-time and not graduating, Iowa College Aid said,” would benefit from the use of an oxford comma to prevent confusion over whether the reporter meant part-time students don’t graduate, or both part-time students and those working full time while enrolled don’t graduate.  

Overall, the coverage of the story was well done.  The reporter spoke to a number of professional sources and went as far as profiling individuals directly affected by the topic.  With some design improvements, however, the story could have attracted readers who found the large amount of text daunting.