| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Independent |
| Founded | 1877 |
| Headquarters | New York, New York |
| Official website | www.columbiaspectator.com |
Columbia Daily Spectator is the daily student newspaper of Columbia University. It is published at 112th and Broadway in New York, New York. Founded in 1877, it is the oldest continuously operating college news daily in the nation after The Harvard Crimson, and has been legally independent of the university since 1962. It is printed weekdays during the academic term. In addition to serving as a campus newspaper, the Spec, as it is commonly known, also reports the latest news of the surrounding Morningside Heights community. The paper is delivered each day to over 150 locations throughout the Morningside Heights neighborhood and has a circulation of 8,000.[1]
Contents |
Spectator is published by the Spectator Publishing Company, an independent non-profit organization. The president of the Spectator Publishing Company also serves as the publisher of the Columbia Daily Spectator.
Spectator's writing departments, each headed by one or two editors, include campus news, city news, sports, arts and entertainment, and opinion. The other non-writing departments, also headed by their own respective editors, include photography, design, online, production, copy, and business. The business departments, which oversee the newspaper's advertising, finances, and alumni relations, are headed by the publisher.
Spec is currently run by the 136th managing board. First-time writers at Columbia begin their time at the paper with a 1- to 2-month trial period, during which they learn the basics of writing an article and publish their first articles. Each November and December, students run for positions at the paper, a grueling process that takes nearly a month. They begin by "shadowing," or sitting with the current editors or associate editors and learning the editing process. Next they write proposals for their desired position. The students then take editing tests made up by their department editor that test them on fundamentals. Finally, they go through the "Turkey Shoot," an interview in which the current managing board grills the applicant on why the applicant feels that they would be a good fit for the position. The results of the process, including the new managing board, are announced in mid-December, the weekend before finals.
In 2005, Spec started printing La Página, a weekly flyer in Spanish with translations of some of the week's English content most relevant to neighborhood readers.
The next year, in February 2006, the paper launched a series of blogs, SpecBlogs. They were the third Ivy League paper to do this, after the Harvard Crimson 's Sports Blog (December 2005) and The Daily Pennsylvanian 's TheBuzz (January 2006).
In September 2006, Spectator staff launched The Eye, a weekly magazine featuring investigative pieces and commentary on Columbia and New York City. The name of The Eye relates both to the fact that one "spectates" with it and urban theorist Jane Jacobs' notion that "eyes on the street" help keep neighborhoods safe.
In March 2010, Spec launched a new blog, Spectrum, which is updated several times a day with breaking news, columns, and features.
Editor in Chief: Sarah Darville
Managing Editor: Maggie Alden
Publisher: Alex Smyk
Campus News Editor: Sammy Roth
City News Editor: Finn Vigeland
Editorial Page Editors: Andrea García-Vargas and Lanbo Zhang
Arts & Entertainment Editor: Abby Mitchell
Sports Editors: Jeremiah Sharf and Rebeka Cohan
Spectrum Editor: Stephen Snowder
Design Editors: Maya Fegan and Isaac White
Head Copy Editor: Abigail Fisch
Photo Editor: Zara Castany
Multimedia Editor: Justine Hope
Editor in Chief of The Eye: Ashton Cooper
Art Director of The Eye: Cathi Choi
Managing Editor of The Eye for Features: Anneliese Cooper
Managing Editor of The Eye for Optics: Meredith Foster
Staff Director: Tala Akhavan
Online Editor: Jake Davidson
Alumni Director: Rob Frech
Finance Director: Daniela Quintanilla
Sales Director: Rex Macaylo
| Year | Board | Editor in Chief | Publisher | Managing Editor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 136th | Sarah Darville | Alex Smyk | Maggie Alden |
| 2011 | 135th | Samuel Roth | Aditya Mukerjee | Michele Cleary |
| 2010 | 134th | Ben Cotton | Akhil Mehta | Thomas Rhiel |
| 2009 | 133rd | Melissa Repko | Julia Feldberg | Elizabeth Simins |
| 2008 | 132nd | Tom Faure | Manal Alam | Amanda Sebba |
| 2007 | 131st | John Davisson | John Mascari | Amanda Erickson |
| 2006 | 130th | Steve Moncada | Jacob Olson & John Mascari | Tim Shenk, succ. by Nick Klagge |
| 2005 | 129th | Megan Greenwell | Chase Behringer | Theo Orsher & Liz Fink |
| 2004 | 128th | Nick Summers | Lauren Appelbaum, succ. by Tanner Zucker | James Romoser |
| 2003 | 127th | Telis Demos | Amit Melwani | Juliana Castedo |
| 2002 | 126th | Alice Boone | Rob Bruce | Isolde Raftery |
| 2001 | 125th | Michael Mirer | Jeff Posnick | Nick Schifrin |
| 2000 | 124th | Dan Laidman | Jonathan Gordin | Miriam Haskell |
| 1999 | 123rd | Nathan Hale | ||
| 1998 | 122nd | Eli Sanders | ||
| 1997 | 121st | Kim Van Duzer | ||
| 1996 | 120th | Hans Chen | ||
| 1995 | 119th | Peter G. Freeman | Fredrik Stanton | Henry Tam, Jr. |
| 1994 | 118th | Ruth Halikman | Chris Conway | Michael Stanton |
| 1993 | 117th | Elizabeth Berke | ||
| 1992 | 116th | Kristina Nye | ||
| 1991 | 115th | Kirsten Danis | ||
| 1990 | 114th | Julie Zuckerman | ||
| 1989 | 113th | Josh Gillette | Jonathan Earle | |
| 1988 | 112th | Tracy Connor | ||
| 1987 | 111th | Sara Just | Alison Craiglow | |
| 1986 | 110th | Jacqueline Shea Murphy | ||
| 1985 | 109th | Anne Kornhauser | Thomas Fitzsimmons | William A. Teichner |
| 1984 | 108th | Aaron J. Freiwald | Thomas Fitzsimmons | Robert Zeiger |
| 1983 | 107th | Steven Waldman |
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