Typical Cherwell front page |
|
| Type | Weekly newspaper during Oxford University term time |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner | Oxford Student Publications Limited |
| Founded | 1920 |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | 7 St Aldate's, Oxford |
| Circulation | c. 16,000 |
| Official website | Cherwell.org |
Cherwell (i/ˈtʃɑrwɛl/ char-well) is an independent newspaper, largely published for students of Oxford University. First published in 1920, it has had an online edition since 1996. Named after the local river, Cherwell is published by OSPL (Oxford Student Publications Ltd.), who also publish the sister publication ISIS along with the Etcetera Supplement and Bang! Science magazine. One of the oldest student publications in the UK, it is editorially independent and has been the launching pad for many well known journalistic and business careers. The newspaper has a commercial business team, receives no university funding and is independent of the student union.
The current editors are Sophie Jamieson and Helen Pye.[1]
Contents |
Cherwell was conceived by two Balliol College students, Cecil Binney and George Edinger, on a ferry from Dover to Ostend during the summer vacation of 1920 while the students were travelling to Vienna to do relief work for the Save the Children charity. Edinger recalls the early newspaper having a radical voice: "We were feeling for a new Oxford… We were anti-convention, anti-Pre War values, Pro-Feminist. We did not mind shocking and we often did."
Nonetheless, early editions combine this seriousness with whimsy and parochialism. The first editorial gives the newspaper's purpose as being "to exclude all outside influence and interference from our University. Oxford for the Oxonians".
Cherwell was the only newspaper printed in Britain during the UK General Strike of 1926, other than the British Gazette and the British Worker, during which time it was produced at the offices of the Daily Mail in London.
Throughout the 1920s Cherwell had a strong literary focus, and a policy of not editing literary contributions. Undergraduate contributors included Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, John Betjeman, L. P. Hartley, Cecil Day-Lewis and W. H. Auden.
The newspaper's literary focus broadened over the coming decades until by 1950 it had become a general-interest newspaper. In 1946 Cherwell was briefly banned by the university for distributing a survey on the sex lives of undergraduates, and in 1954 ran a series of pin-up photographs entitled "Girls of the Year". In 1970 then-editor Peter Stothard published a current Oxford theatre poster featuring a naked female, possibly a first for a British newspaper. Under his editorship Cherwell also published a backless photo of Gully Wells, considered very daring for the time. Both editions caused much comment. In 1973 the paper became a 'cause celebre' in the national papers when the Cherwell published a photo of General Editor David Soskin with a topless model. This resulted in a personal fine by the proctors for David Soskin.
In 1964 the newspaper's longest-running feature was born, the John Evelyn gossip column (which has run almost uninterrupted ever since). Over the decades many famous people have been the subject of John Evelyn's wry and faux-condescending style, among them future Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, politician Jonathan Aitken, and actor Imogen Stubbs. In 1981, Hugh Grant is described as "New College's answer to Brooke Shields", and his unsuccessful attempts to infiltrate a ball with his date are reported.
In the mid-1970s Cherwell survived one of its periodic financial crises, and politically the paper campaigned against Oxford University's investments in apartheid-era South Africa.
Cherwell is published by Oxford Student Publications Ltd, a student-run publishing company. "Cherwell" staff are Oxford students who run the paper while studying for their degrees. Editors and deputy editors are elected termly by the Board of Directors, also largely made up of former editors and business staff. The editors determine the rest of their team, usually consisting of a news editor, features editor, arts editor and sports editor, and their respective deputies. All positions may be held jointly, more commonly in the junior positions. Section editors hold their own section meetings, at which any student may participate. Guest contributors are commonly employed, often Oxford-educated national figures.
The engagement of Charles, Prince of Wales to Diana Spencer was announced in a Cherwell world exclusive, after the news leaked to the paper through a connection working in the British royal household. News that Chelsea Clinton planned to study for a master's degree at Oxford was also first published in Cherwell.
The 2009 hotly contested contest for the Oxford Professor of Poetry Chair was covered by the paper. It broke the story that sexual allegations against applicant Derek Walcott were being created by persons linked to applicant and eventual winner Ruth Padel.
Cherwell has no party political line or stated political sympathy. A broad range of views are expressed, and the centre of gravity tends to change frequently, owing to the rapid turnover of editorial staff.
The Oxford English Dictionary lists the terms 'sherry party' and 'Marxism' (as pertaining to the Marx Brothers) as having been coined in Cherwell. Additions from recent decades are lacking probably because Cherwell is only sporadically lodged at copyright libraries, and because it is not included in electronic text search systems such as Lexis-Nexis.
Cherwell has had a website since Trinity 1996, when Cherwell Online was launched by Thor Mitchell under Cherwell editors Jat Gill and David Black. After several years called "Cherwell24", the website became "Cherwell" on Tuesday 15 April 2008 as part of the major redevelopment by Chris Baranuik.
As part of the 2008 changes, the newspaper's print and online staff were integrated into one team. The site is updated every day during term and regularly during the vacation. It contains all of the articles from the print edition, as well as breaking news, videos, features, arts reviews, sport reports and podcasts such as the soap opera podcast Staircase 22. Students use the website to vote on the paper's regular feature, Fit College and also to post comments on articles.
In 2008, it won the 'Guardian Student Media' award for Best Student Website.[2]