The Daily Texan
Encyclopedia
The Daily Texan is the student newspaper
of the University of Texas at Austin
. It is entirely student-run and independent from the university. It is one of the largest college newspapers in the United States
with a daily circulation of roughly 30,000 during the fall and spring semesters and bills itself as the oldest student newspaper in the South
. The Texan has won more national, regional and state awards than any other college newspaper in America and counts 10 Pulitzer Prize
winners among its former staff.
A number of comic strips that began in the Texan went on to have commercial success. The most notable of these is Berke Breathed's
Academia Waltz, the predecessor to Bloom County
. Hepcats
by Martin Wagner and Eyebeam
by Sam Hurt also found continued success after their creators had left the University of Texas.
In 2008, The Daily Texan was one of three student newspapers that owned and operated its own printing press. Originally acquired in 1973 for US$222,000 (US$1,080,606 adjusted), the press was put on the market in 2009. In May 2009, the Austin American-Statesman
began printing The Daily Texan.
In modern times, editorial candidates have been screened by the Texas Student Publications Board (TSP Board), an entity with faculty, student, and newspaper industry representatives. The TSP Board publishes a handbook which sets forth the requirements an editorial candidate must meet before his or her name may be placed on the ballot. The board has been resistant to the idea of an elected editor and has made several attempts to convert the position to an appointed one. The most recent attempt, led by the board president, was in 2005.
The TSP Board currently appoints the managing editor, who oversees the daily operation of the paper while the elected editor generally stewards the editorial page. However, the elected editor retains the final say over the content of the newspaper.
' "Pacemaker Award" in 1965, 1969, 1971 and 1985, and the Columbia Scholastic Press
' Gold Crown Award in 1984, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2005 and 2006.
Student newspaper
A student newspaper is a newspaper run by students of a university, high school, middle school, or other school. These papers traditionally cover local and, primarily, school or university news....
of the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
. It is entirely student-run and independent from the university. It is one of the largest college newspapers in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with a daily circulation of roughly 30,000 during the fall and spring semesters and bills itself as the oldest student newspaper in the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
. The Texan has won more national, regional and state awards than any other college newspaper in America and counts 10 Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
winners among its former staff.
A number of comic strips that began in the Texan went on to have commercial success. The most notable of these is Berke Breathed's
Berkeley Breathed
Guy Berkeley "Berke" Breathed is an American cartoonist, children's book author/illustrator, director and screenwriter, best known for Bloom County, a 1980s cartoon-comic strip that dealt with sociopolitical issues as understood by fanciful characters and through humorous analogies...
Academia Waltz, the predecessor to Bloom County
Bloom County
Bloom County is an American comic strip by Berkeley Breathed which ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, where children often have adult personalities and vocabularies and where...
. Hepcats
Hepcats
Hepcats was a comic book self-published in the 1990s by artist Martin Wagner. It dealt with the lives of four college students, rendered as anthropomorphic animals , and was inspired by Wagner's own college experiences....
by Martin Wagner and Eyebeam
Eyebeam (comic)
Eyebeam was a daily comic strip written and illustrated by Sam Hurt at the University of Texas at Austin. Unlike most college strips, its popularity led to a print life past Hurt's graduation. The strip ran in the college's Daily Texan from 1980–1990, though primeval examples from 1978-1979...
by Sam Hurt also found continued success after their creators had left the University of Texas.
History
The Texans origins date back to 1900, when two privately owned weekly newspapers were distributed on campus — the Calendar and the Ranger. In 1904 the two papers were taken over by the student council and merged. In 1913, the student body voted to publish the paper each weekday, and The Daily Texan was born on September 24, 1913.In 2008, The Daily Texan was one of three student newspapers that owned and operated its own printing press. Originally acquired in 1973 for US$222,000 (US$1,080,606 adjusted), the press was put on the market in 2009. In May 2009, the Austin American-Statesman
Austin American-Statesman
The Austin American-Statesman is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of Texas. It is an award-winning publication owned by Cox Enterprises. The Newspaper places focus on issues affecting Austin and the Central Texas region....
began printing The Daily Texan.
Staff
Most of the staff positions are paid and the top two positions offer a stipend that covers nearly nine hours of paid in-state tuition and fee scholarships. Historically, the position of editor of The Daily Texan has been elected. The logic of an elected editor historically has been based on the newspaper's having been founded and owned by students and then given over to the student body. More recently, it has been argued that because students were compelled to fund the paper through the payment of mandatory student service fees, they should have some say in the paper's overall direction. In addition, the elected editor has been seen as a way to protect the paper from institutional censorship from the university. Since the student body selects the editor of the paper, this ensures that the university administration cannot install an editor sympathetic to its views and thereby control the content of the newspaper.In modern times, editorial candidates have been screened by the Texas Student Publications Board (TSP Board), an entity with faculty, student, and newspaper industry representatives. The TSP Board publishes a handbook which sets forth the requirements an editorial candidate must meet before his or her name may be placed on the ballot. The board has been resistant to the idea of an elected editor and has made several attempts to convert the position to an appointed one. The most recent attempt, led by the board president, was in 2005.
The TSP Board currently appoints the managing editor, who oversees the daily operation of the paper while the elected editor generally stewards the editorial page. However, the elected editor retains the final say over the content of the newspaper.
Awards
The Texan has won many prestigious awards, including the Associated Collegiate PressAssociated Collegiate Press
The Associated Collegiate Press is the largest and oldest national membership organization for college student media in the United States. The ACP is a division of the National Scholastic Press Association...
' "Pacemaker Award" in 1965, 1969, 1971 and 1985, and the Columbia Scholastic Press
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
' Gold Crown Award in 1984, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2005 and 2006.
Notable staff alumni
- Bill BarminskiBill BarminskiBill Barminski is an American artist and filmmaker born in Chicago, Illinois.- Life and art :Barminski moved with his family to Fort Worth, Texas, while still very young and it was there that he spent most of his formative years....
- Lisa BeyerLisa BeyerLisa Beyer is currently vice president of communications at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative . Prior to joining IAVI, Beyer was assistant managing editor at TIME Magazine until early 2007....
- Berke Breathed
- Walter CronkiteWalter CronkiteWalter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...
- Mike GodwinMike GodwinMichael Wayne Godwin is an American attorney and author. He was the first staff counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation , and the creator of the Internet adage Godwin's Law of Nazi Analogies. From July 2007 to October 2010, he was general counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation...
- Karen Elliott HouseKaren Elliott HouseKaren Elliott House is a journalist and former executive at the Wall Street Journal and its parent company Dow Jones. She served as President of Dow Jones International and then publisher of the WSJ before her retirement in the spring of 2006....
- Deborah HowellDeborah HowellDeborah Howell was a long-time newswoman and editor who served for three years as the ombudsman for The Washington Post.Howell is a Board Member In Memoriam at the IWMF ....
- Dan MaloneDan MaloneDanny Frank Malone is a United States journalist and a Pulitzer Prize winner for investigative reporting. Malone currently works for the Fort Worth Weekly, an alternative newspaper....
- Willie MorrisWillie MorrisWilliam Weaks "Willie" Morris , was an American writer and editor born in Jackson, Mississippi, though his family later moved to Yazoo City, Mississippi, which he immortalized in his works of prose. Morris' trademark was his lyrical prose style and reflections on the American South, particularly...
- Bill MoyersBill MoyersBill Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson Administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public...
- Larry C. Price
- Robert RodriguezRobert RodriguezRobert Anthony Rodríguez is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. He shoots and produces many of his films in his native Texas and Mexico. He has directed such films as Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, The Faculty, Spy Kids, Sin City, Planet...
- Liz SmithLiz Smith (journalist)Mary Elizabeth "Liz" Smith is an American gossip columnist. She is known as The Grand Dame of Dish.- Early life and career :...
- Karen TumultyKaren TumultyKaren Tumulty is a national political correspondent for The Washington Post. Before joining the Post, Tumulty wrote for Time from October 1994 to April 2010. She was a Congressional correspondent as well as the National Political Correspondent based in Washington D.C...
- Siva VaidhyanathanSiva VaidhyanathanSiva Vaidhyanathan is a cultural historian and media scholar, and is currently a professor of Media Studies and Law at the University of Virginia. Vaidhyanathan is a frequent contributor on media and cultural issues in various periodicals including The Chronicle of Higher Education, New York Times...
- Rob WalkerRob Walker (journalist)Rob Walker is an American author and freelance journalist. He is a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine and blogger for Design Observer....
- Chris WareChris WareFranklin Christenson Ware , is an American comic book artist and cartoonist, widely known for his Acme Novelty Library series and the graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he resides in the Chicago area, Illinois...
- Robert WilonskyRobert WilonskyRobert Elliott Wilonsky is an American journalist and the former host of Higher Definition, an interview program on the cable television network HDNet.-Early life:Wilonsky was born in Dallas, Texas to Margaret and Herschel Wilonsky...
- Lady Bird JohnsonLady Bird JohnsonClaudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 during the presidency of her husband Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout her life, she was an advocate for beautification of the nation's cities and highways and conservation of natural resources and made that...
External links
- The Daily Texan
- Editors of The Daily Texan — compiled by John Economidy