The University of Western Australia has today announced that its annual fundraising satirical newspaper PROSH will be transformed into a weekly BuzzFeed-style e-newsletter effective immediately.
The decision was finalized by the Senate after several months of closed negotiations with Perth community members, students, charities, and current and former PROSH Editors. The City of Perth are reported to have initiated the move, citing huge clean-up efforts (of flour, jelly, students, paint) following the official morning of PROSH, where students take to the streets of Perth to sell the broadsheet.
The City also referred to ongoing complaints from Claremont mums about students in ill-made costumes being “horrible troublemakers”, “morning eyesores” and “a general nuisance”.
“The new model is cost-saving, it’s convenient, and it’s bringing a proud UWA tradition up to the 20th century consumer preferences” Vice Chancellor Paul Johnson has since expressed in a statement released to media this morning. “It is moreover turning a ‘flash-in-the-pan’ event into one which can build revenue over the whole year through online advertising. Cost/profit projections make it clear that this strategy will overall be of far greater benefit to nominated charities”.
2016 PROSH director Matt Clark-Massera has declared support and enthusiasm for the transition.
“Moving to an e-newsletter format will allow us to improve in several key areas” he told Pelican magazine in an exclusive statement. “Not only is our impact on the environment is reduced, but more importantly, we are able to maximise the potential of our writers. Listicles, reposting things we found on reddit and using GIFS in place of actual creativity really fits in with the key skills of our writing group.”
Clark-Massera’s position is in strong contrast to that of PROSH Editor Rae Twiss’. In a Facebook post this morning, she announced her plans to resign from her executive role, stating that “Posting benign images with poorly thought out captions is my thing, I don’t want PROSH stealing my thunder”.
The announcement coincides with the first day of ‘layout weekend’, in which students occupy a full floor of the Guild building to engage in drinking, partying, meme-ing and the better part of content generation. Whilst this event shall continue to go ahead as planned, the calendar event of PROSH itself – initially scheduled for April 13 – is cancelled.
Words by Kate Prendergast