The 10 Most Storied College Newspapers in America

Print journalism has a long and illustrious history on the college campuses of America. From social protests to scientific breakthroughs, college newspapers have been there providing coverage and commentary on the latest news for over two centuries. While the odds of earning the distinction of being called a “storied” institution increase with age, the most famous college newspapers are more than just old. They’ve been staffed by legendary journalists and kindled reputations for excellence, independence, integrity, and even controversy. These 10 schools make up our picks for the most storied dailies and weeklies in the country.

1. The Daily Texan, University of Texas:Every weekday, 30,000 Texas Longhorns help themselves to this storied college paper. Started in 1900 as a weekly, the Texan boasts 10 Pulitzer Prize winners like Bill Moyers and Berke Breathed among its former staffers, along with fellow luminaries like Robert Rodriguez and Lady Bird Johnson. UT is also proud to point out that the paper has more national, state, and regional awards on its mantle than any other college newspaper in the U.S. For better or worse, the Texan has courted controversy several times over the years, adding to its national reputation as one of the most colorful college newspapers in one of the Union’s most iconic states.
2. The Daily Collegian, Pennsylvania State University:Months of emerging details involving the Jerry Sandusky affair have reminded critics all over the country about the legacy of solid journalism that has been a staple of Penn State since 1887. Throughout that time, The Daily Collegian has remained a student-run paper. While there have been plenty of local goings-on with which to fill its pages of late, the Collegian also covers state, national, and international news. The paper routinely garners national awards, most recently being named Princeton Review’s best college newspaper in the country.
3. The Daily Northwestern, Northwestern University:Since 1921, this college paper has had the benefit of sharing campus with one of the country’s finest journalism schools, the Medill School of Journalism. The close relationship has produced a list of staff alumni that’s like a journalism dream team: sportscaster Brent Musberger; novelist Sidney Sheldon; Richard Stolley, the founding editor of People magazine; and 15 Pulitzer prize winners. The Daily became a daily in 1910 and became independent of the university in 1923. Over the years, the publication has racked up awards like those from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and the coveted “Pulitzer Prize of college journalism,” the Associated Collegiate Press’ Pacemaker Award.
4. Yale Daily News, Yale University:With a launch date of Jan. 28, 1878, the Daily News’ claim for “oldest college daily” is a strong one, even if others claim to have older iterations. In its long run, the offices of the Daily News have become the storied stomping grounds of future governors, senators, and presidential advisors, not to mention journalists for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and others. The paper has been at the forefront of free speech debates several times, including the early ’60s when reporters exposed campus police keeping files on Yale “subversives.” In 2009, the same year it won a Pacemaker, the Daily News broke the story of a Yale grad student’s murder, which became a major national story.
5. The Harvard Crimson, Harvard University:Franklin D. Roosevelt. John F. Kennedy. Michael Crichton. Steve Ballmer. Daniel Ellsberg. Like pretty much everything else at Harvard, the only daily paper in all of Cambridge has had a long and storied history. The Magenta became The Crimson in 1875 on the event of a change in the school colors, and ever since future Pulitzer Prize winners and business and political leaders have been filing through to practice the timeless art of journalism. The country and the world’s most pressing issues have been covered here by unknown journalists and major movie stars alike. Anyone lucky enough to write for this paper knows they are in good company.
6. The Cavalier Daily, University of Virginia:In 2008 and 2009, UVA’s daily periodical won handfuls of awards, including the Virginia Press Association’s First Amendment Award and a Jefferson Muzzle award from the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. The awards were an acknowledgment of a storied paper that after 110 years of existence had become a leader in the fight for free speech. The long-running paper that had produced journalist Katie Couric and three Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists outlasted rival papers on campus and skirted attempts to censor its content by going fully independent in 1979. Still today the paper is known as a college publication that refuses to shy away from taboo subjects.
7. The Red & Black, University of Georgia:In its 109-year run, the UGA daily has had its share of Pacemakers, nods from the Princeton Review, and other accolades. But perhaps the most acclaimed facet of its storied history has been its ongoing struggle for autonomy. Fights with the administration over the students’ leeway in running the paper began as early as 1896. Though the paper became independent of the school in 1980, its Board of Directors recently attempted to make a non-student the editorial director. In a story that gained national coverage and cemented The Red & Black as a defender of student journalism, the editorial staff walked out and forced the board to give them back editorial control.
8. The Daily Californian, University of California, Berkeley:One of the oldest newspapers on the West Coast, The Daily Californian has been reporting from the heart of Berkeley, the center of many of the country’s most important social and political discourses, since 1871. Like The Red & Black, the Californian had to stage its own fight for independence exactly 100 years after its creation. Over time, the paper had developed a penchant for putting out pot-stirring editorials. After “years of bickering” with the administration, a controversial staff editorial provoked the paper’s board to fire three editors. But the students refused to submit to censorship and became independent, starting a new chapter in the Californian’s storied legacy.
9. The Dartmouth Review, Dartmouth College:The official college newspaper, The Dartmouth, may claim to be the oldest college newspaper in America, but in just over 30 years of existence, the bi-weekly Dartmouth Review has become arguably even more famous. Four fed-up staffers from The Dartmouth split off to form this independent publication and in so doing paved the way for other, similar papers like Yale Free Press and Cornell Review. Famous conservatives Laura Ingraham and Reagan staffer Jeffrey Hart are two notable alumni who give an idea of the political leanings of its material. Time and again, the Review has found itself at the center of controversy, creating fodder that feeds its readership of 4,000 students and thousands more around the country on the Internet.
10. The Auburn Plainsman, Auburn University:This school paper went from humble beginnings to today being the largest weekly in the state of Alabama. Founded as a bi-monthly called the Orange and Blue, the Plainsman has made a name for itself for journalistic excellence. Since 1966, it has been awarded no fewer than 24 Pacemaker awards, making it the second-winningest college paper of the prestigious accolade in history. And despite not being a daily paper, the Plainsman is able to break national stories, like scoring this summer’s alleged confession from Harvey Updike, the suspected Toomer’s Corner poisoner.