Washington State President Elson Floyd announced Tuesday that the Pullman campus will make all internal communication electronic, including shifting the  publication of its University Relations newspaper, WSU Today, to an online format.

Floyd cited cost savings as one of the reasons for the switch, and said the move doesn’t diminish the importance of internal communication.

“Experts have been predicting a transition to a paperless society for years. Meanwhile, it seems that the piles of paper that cross our desks keep growing,” he said in an online statement. “We plan to reverse that trend. I expect this change will spur creativity as we look toward new media alternatives to keep us informed about our university, its goals, challenges and accomplishments.”

Officials could not predict how much money the change would save, but added that phasing out paper was also an environmentally conscious move.

Robert Frank, editor of WSU Today, told The Chronicle’s Wired Campus blog that the elimination of the print edition of the paper after 38 years was “bittersweet.”

“I was trained and my background has been all in print journalism, so I hate to see any newspaper die, especially if they’re doing well,” he told the blog, adding: “It is really exciting to deliver the news in a new format.”