Berkeley, Calif. — The downturn in the newspaper industry is beginning to take a toll on student newspapers as well. The independent student newspaper at the University of California’s campus here, The Daily Californian, announced today that it would cut back its publication and reduce its staff because of declining advertising revenue.

The 135-year-old paper is particularly vulnerable to changes in the market for newspaper advertising because, unlike most college papers, it is financially independent of the institution it covers. Editors at the paper, which publishes about 10,000 print copies each weekday, made it independent of the university in 1971, after a dispute with university administrators over the content of an editorial.

The newspaper is eliminating a print issue on Wednesdays, cutting its staff by 25 percent, and reducing pay to some editors and reporters, according to an announcement by its editor, Bryan Thomas. The paper is starting a campaign to build an endowment and is offering new forms of advertising in an attempt to raise new revenue and return to a five-day-a-week publication schedule, Mr. Thomas said. —Josh Keller