Student newspapers that don't suck?
February 24, 2010 1:29 PM   Subscribe

Student newspapers that don't suck?

What's a school newspaper you know of that:
1. Contains structured, coherent, pointful prose.
2. Effectively and accessibly represents the masses.
3. Gives the necessary facts to judge all sides of an issue.
4. Takes the statements of PR departments with a grain of salt.
5. Refrains from always defending the administration.
???
posted by oneous to Education (17 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
When I was at University of Maryland in the 90s, The Diamondback was pretty good. They bill themselves as "an independent student newspaper" - they still have offices on campus, but broke away from being officially affiliated with the school in some kerfuffle back in the day.

Things may well have changed since then, but I remember the quality being pretty good. They also launched Aaron McGruder's "The Boondocks" (although they later stopped printing it after yet another kerfuffle).
posted by drjimmy11 at 1:34 PM on February 24, 2010


It might help to know if you're talking about college or secondary schools. The Daily Northwestern always seemed like a solid college newspaper to me - certainly better than the free Red Eye that the Tribune publishes for the rest of Chicago. Folks I knew at the Daily treated it like a serious paper. It also prided itself on not taking funding from the school, so that it could maintain the ability to be critical of the administration - it made its money off of ads mostly.

If you looked at the student papers of other top journalism schools, you could probably find a few more.
posted by Wulfhere at 1:42 PM on February 24, 2010


I would start with the winners of the ACP Pacemaker and the CSPA Gold Crown awards from the last year.
posted by grouse at 1:47 PM on February 24, 2010


I assumed you meant university student newspapers, but CSPA gives high school papers awards too, as does ACP's high school affiliate, the NSPA.
posted by grouse at 1:48 PM on February 24, 2010


The online American Observer is a grad j-student pub. I loved working on it.
posted by jgirl at 2:25 PM on February 24, 2010


The Daily Texan is better than the local newspapers in many of the places I've lived.
posted by zjacreman at 2:57 PM on February 24, 2010


Varsity, while far from perfect, is one of the best I've seen in the UK.
posted by turkeyphant at 3:01 PM on February 24, 2010


The University of Missouri's, the Missourian daily newspaper *is* a real newspaper. The student-run newspaper, the Maneater also isn't bad.
posted by honeybee413 at 3:06 PM on February 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


If you looked at the student papers of other top journalism schools, you could probably find a few more.

UNC Chapel Hill has a good journalism school, and our Daily Tar Heel is pretty great. Most students I know actually read it, plus it's distributed all over town and a lot of locals read it too.
posted by showbiz_liz at 3:30 PM on February 24, 2010


If "refrains from always defending the administration" is an important one for you, check for fully independent papers (ones that don't get any money, space, free utilities or staff time from the school)

University of Wisconsin's Badger Herald is a fully independent one where I live. It's quality ebbs and flows over the years with the quality of the staff, but I think it's coverage is often better and less biased than Madison's local papers.
posted by mjcon at 3:51 PM on February 24, 2010


I go to Northwestern and don't find the Daily that impressive. I really like The Daily Kansan, from the University of Kansas.
posted by elisabethjw at 4:49 PM on February 24, 2010


Seconding the Daily Tar Heel.
posted by Stylus Happenstance at 6:12 PM on February 24, 2010


The Independent Florida Alligator, the independent student-run newspaper of the University of Florida, is well regarded in terms of student newspapers. Good prose for a college paper, effective and fair representation of population, doesn't always hold the party line with advertisers or the administration: check to all those.
posted by penduluum at 6:50 PM on February 24, 2010


The RIT Reporter regularly tops out nationwide student publication awards. I may be a little biased as my brother was its editor a decade ago (already? wow. sheesh) but it was quite an accomplished publication.
posted by carlh at 6:59 PM on February 24, 2010


The Daily Pennsylvanian produced by the students of UPenn was quite a decent read during my time at there. I recall them getting into several tiffs with the staff for their articles, but never anything really revolutionary.
posted by nursegracer at 10:40 PM on February 24, 2010


Yay, Tufts Daily! www.tuftsdaily.com They blew off the student government dorks, the greeks, and the administration in equal parts to arrive at rather good stories. And I regularly see online the bylines of some writers from my time there.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:07 PM on February 25, 2010


2nding the The Daily Texan, though I think it's not as good as it once was. This may just be because I'm older and my standards are higher. Their news and opinion stuff is good, but I find the entertainment and music writing to be so-so at best.
posted by ishotjr at 11:18 AM on February 26, 2010


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