State News
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The State News is the student newspaper of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. It is supported by a combination of advertising revenue and a $5 refundable tax that students pay at each semester's matriculation. Though The State News is supported by a student tax, the faculty and administration do not interfere in the paper's content. The State News is governed by a Board of Directors, which is comprised of journalism professionals, faculty and students. Unlike many newspapers, the State News does not employ an Ombudsman. In 2007, the Princeton Review's guide to the top 361 colleges [1] ranked the State News as the #18 best college newspaper in the country.
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[edit] History
The State News traces its roots to March 10, 1909. The name at first was The Holcad, chosen by the president of the then-Michigan Agricultural College. Holcad was the name of a ship that carried news from seaport to seaport in ancient Greece. The newspaper was seen as a way for students to defend themselves against charges of hooliganism by the Lansing press.
In 1925, the newspaper changed its name to the Michigan State News. Eventually, this got clipped to The State News. The paper was overseen by a university-run publications board.
In 1971, the newspaper was spun off from the university into a nonprofit corporation, State News Inc., governed by its own board of directors. The move was designed to protect the student publication from interference by university administrators who might disagree with its content. Its incorporation also protected the university from liability of anything published in The State News. The newspaper's masthead references this, referring to the publication as "MSU's Independent Voice."
In August 2005 the State News moved its offices from the Student Services Building, where it had resided since the building's opening in 1957, to an off-campus location at 435 E. Grand River Ave. Prior to its move to Student Services, the newspaper had its offices in the MSU Union.
[edit] Controversy and Criticism
Conservative critics argue that the State News has a liberal lean because the paper's editorials often support Democratic candidates and positions. On Veterans Day, 2005, editorial cartoonist Mike Ramsey drew a piece that showed a World War II soldier who liberated concentration camps conversing with a modern-day soldier who was shown holding a torture device. In response, Young Americans for Freedom and the College Republicans picketed the State News offices, and called for Ramsey's dismissal. Ramsey was not fired.
The State News has also come under fire for running advertisements from controversial sources. In 2003, an advertisement showed Palestinians celebrating in the street while Israelis lit candles and prayed. The caption stated that these were the reactions to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Pro-Palestinian groups protested outside the Student Services building and demanded their State News tax be refunded.
In 2002, the newspaper angered the Catholic Church through the publication of another cartoon, which drew a parallel between abuse of children by priests and a Supreme Court case involving Internet pornography.
[edit] Journalistic opportunity
Many of the paper's staffers have gone on to professional internships and jobs at the nation's largest newspapers. State News alumni work for news organizations around the world. The newspaper has won the Associated Collegiate Press' Pacemaker award 15 times. The award, considered one of college journalism's top prizes, was won most recently in 2006. It won in 2003 for coverage of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and a campus riot later in the spring of that year. Reporters often travel to cover news, especially to out-of-state sporting events. Clinics and professional development opportunities are provided. A staff photographer at the paper has been named Michigan's College Photographer of the Year by the Michigan Press Photographers' Association each year for most of the last decade.
[edit] Publishing and Distribution
Free copies of the paper are available online or at green-colored newsstands around campus and the city. The State News prints 28,500 copies of the paper Monday through Friday during the Fall and Spring semesters, and 15,000 copies five days a week during the summer. Those circulation figures make The State News one of the largest collegiate newspapers in the country. The paper is not published on weekends (however, does have a weekend edition distributed on Friday), holidays, or semester breaks. The State News has a readership of more than 48,000 students, faculty, staff and surrounding cities residents.
[edit] Former ENCs
- Mel Reiter 1958;
- Ben Burns early 1960s;
- Jim Spaniolo 1967-68;
- Michael Tanimura 1977-78;
- Jim Mitzelfeld 1982-83;
- Suzette Hackney 1993-94;
- Jonathan Brunt 1998;
- David Miller 2000;
- Mary Sell 2001;
- Jeremy Steele 2002;
- Kevin Hardy 2003;
- Ed Ronco 2004;
- Amy Bartner 2005;
- Nick Mrozowski 2006;
- Margaret Harding 2007;
[edit] Alumni
In 2006, the State News Alumni Association [2] honored the first 15 inductees to its State News Hall of Fame. The first class included:
- A.A. Applegate, MSU journalism chairman and mentor to State News students, 1936-55;
- Len Barnes, news staffer and editor, 1938-42, who along with Sheldon Moyer, is credited with taking The State News from a three-day-a-week paper to a five-day daily featuring a wire service;
- Lou Berman, general manager, 1961-1972, who is credited with saving the newspaper from potential ruin;
- Ben Burns, reporter and editor, 1958-63, a former executive editor of The Detroit News and head of the journalism program at Wayne State University;
- Phil Frank, cartoonist, 1961-65, who went on to publish the strip “Farley” in the San Francisco Chronicle;
- Carole Leigh Hutton, reporter and editor, 1975-78, who helped hold The State News together during a staff walkout in the 1970s the first female publisher and editor of the Detroit Free Press;
- Charles P. “Lash” Larrowe, faculty columnist, 1971-1989, an an economics professor emeritus famous for his satirical column;
- Ron Linton, night editor and editor, 1947-1950, who was a senior consultant for the Carmen Group, served in high-level positions in Congress, worked on John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign and was named director of Economic Utilization Policy at the Department of Defense;
- Dick Milliman, news staff, 1946-50; board member, 1978-85, 1991-96, 2002-present, the founder of Milliman Communications, who during a decades-long career he published more than 25 community newspapers in Michigan.
- Jim Mitzelfeld, editor in chief, 1982-83, a Detroit News reporter when he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 and attorney working for the U.S. Justice Department
- Jim Quello, editor, 1935, who served on the Federal Communications Commission for more than 23 years, including 11 months as interim chairman in 1993;
- Dave Rood, news staff, 1946-50, who in 1977 as editor of The Escanaba Daily Press was asked by his paper’s corporate publisher to run two stories about President Carter. When Rood refused, saying the stories were shoddy journalism, he was fired. His stand for journalistic principles earned him national attention and a place in the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame;
- Jim Spaniolo, editor in chief, 1967-68, a former dean of the College of Communication Arts and Sciences who in 2003 was named president of the University of Texas at Arlington;
- James P. Sterba, news staffer, 1960s, a foreign correspondent, war correspondent and national correspondent for three decades at The New York Times and then for The Wall Street Journal. He is currently a senior correspondent in the New York bureau of The Wall Street Journal;
- Jerry ter Horst, reporter and night editor, 1941-43, who served as President Gerald Ford's press secretary but resigned one month later to protest the pardon of Richard Nixon.
[edit] External links
- The State News is online at www.statenews.com
- As of August 2006, The State News has a new entertainment website that includes a Lansing area Dining Guide, Music/Movie Reviews, Restaurant Reviews and a calendar with upcoming events. The website is called Lansing Lowdown and is online at www.lansinglowdown.com
- The State News Alumni Association is online at http://snaa.statenews.com
