The Daily Free Press

The Daily Free Press

Boston University
"The independent student newspaper at Boston University"
Type	daily student newspaper
Format	Tabloid
Owner(s)	The Back Bay Publishing Co.
Editor	Felicia Gans
Managing editors	Jackie Bamberger
News editor	Alexandra David
Campus editor	Mina Corpuz
Opinion editor	Casey Mintz
Sports editor	Judy Cohen
Photo editor	Allie Wimley
Founded	May 5, 1970
Headquarters	Kenmore Square, Boston
Circulation	5,000 Monday–Thursday
ISSN	1094-7337
Website	dailyfreepress.com

The Daily Free Press is the independent student newspaper at Boston University.^[1] It publishes a daily print edition Monday through Thursday during the academic year . The Daily Free Press is staffed by about 50 editors, writers, reporters and photographers, many but not all of whom are BU journalism students, who work on a volunteer basis and change over each semester. The paper is governed by a board of former editors who make up the Board of Directors of Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc., a Massachusetts non-profit.^[2]

Commonly called The FreeP, The Daily Free Press began publishing May 5, 1970 in response to violent student protests on campus in the wake of the Kent State shootings. It is now the publication at BU with the longest continuing run.

Overview

The Daily Free Press had published an issue every instructional day since its formation until February 13, 2009. In light of increasingly tight finances for newspapers and declining advertising revenue, the paper announced it would discontinue its Friday issue. As of September 2011, circulation was 5,000 issues per day Monday through Thursday. The publication is currently the fourth largest daily English newspaper in the Boston metropolitan area.

The Daily Free Press has won numerous awards for its reporting, including the Columbia Press Association's Gold Medal Award for Excellence. The paper covers campus news, local (Boston-area) news, and campus sports, and publishes editorials, columns, and letters each day. In January 1980, the Arts and Entertainment coverage became The MUSE, the FreeP's weekly A&E publication. Science Tuesday, the first collegiate weekly science section in the country, began in the 1990s. The FreeP also began publishing a news, arts and opinion blog in 2011.^[3]

The editorial staff of the FreeP is strictly volunteer. All writers, photographers and business staffers are BU students, with the exception of the office manager. Members of the editorial board work nights to put out the paper and regularly work 50 hours per week, in addition to their classes.

Every issue has a daily crossword puzzle and sudoku for students to complete.

Many alumni have gone on to careers in journalism, television and film, and a few have won the Pulitzer Prize.

The Daily Free Press Online

Since January 1996, The Daily Free Press Online has been published at dailyfreepress.com every day that the print publication is distributed. The most recent online readership figures for the online edition are 28,000 weekly user sessions and 120,000 monthly page views.

Finances

In 2011, Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc., the governing body of The Daily Free Press, announced that it had paid off a $78,000 debt to its printers Turley Publications, Inc. by way of an advertising advance from the Boston University Dean of Students office. This came after the 2009 discontinuation of Friday editions to cut down on costs. Though some have expressed concerns about the paper's independence in the wake of the financial announcement, the paper continues to be entirely student-run and the university has no control over its content. In 2014, Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc. announced that the Daily Free Press had once again paid off approximately $70,000 in debt due to a crowd funding campaign. Significant donations from Bill O'Reilly and Ernie Boch, Jr., along with several donations from alumni, family and friends helped the newspaper raise a surplus of funds within a two day period.

Notable Daily Free Press Alumni

Some of the editors and writers of the Free Press who have gone on to successful careers in the media include:

• David Barboza, a Beijing-based correspondent at The New York Times;
• Jim Bourg, Photographer/Photo Editor, Reuters
• Mark Cardwell, Managing Editor, Digital Media, The Denver Post
• Andrew Cohen, Denver-based lawyer and the CBS News legal affairs correspondent;
• James Daly, Journalist (Wired, Forbes, Rolling Stone), Entrepreneur (Business 2.0, TED, Edutopia), Frequently both.
• Gabriel Donio, owner and publisher of The Hammonton Gazette
• Ian Donnis, an editor and media critic at The Providence Phoenix;
• Bruce Feirstein, an author, magazine writer and screenwriter;
• Ian Fisher, the Rome correspondent at The New York Times;
• Dan Forst, Staff writer at San Francisco Chronicle (now freelance)
• David Wainer, Israel-based correspondent for Bloomberg News
• Steve Gelsi, reporter at CBSMarketWatch.
• Larry Hackett, managing editor, People magazine
• Joseph T. Hallinan, an author and 1991 Pulitzer Prize-winner for work done at the Indianapolis Star, currently Wall Street Journal reporter ;
• Ray Henry, reporter, Associated Press
• Gerald Herbert, staff photographer, The Associated Press
• Matthew Horovitz, television producer;
• Vivian Ho, of the San Francisco Chronicle
• Kenneth Irby, photographer, Group Leader & Diversity Director, The Poynter Institute.
• Jeff Kline, an award-winning producer of children's TV programs;
• Larry Lebowitz, reporter, The Miami Herald
• Mike Mokrzycki, independent consultant/manager of election polling, NBC News; former director of polling, The Associated Press
• Bill O'Reilly, television personality and journalist;
• Don Van Natta, Jr., an author and member of The New York Times staff receiving the Pulitzer Prize in 1999 & 2002;
• Jessica Van Sack, chief enterprise reporter, the Boston Herald
• Chris Nagi, managing editor, Bloomberg News
• Onell R. Soto, part of Pulitzer Prize-winning team at The San Diego Union-Tribune.
• Lisa Anne Auerbach, artist and recognized as one of the best American travel writers.
• Narendra Nandoe, Chief of the Publishing Section at the United Nations in New York.
• Elizabeth Weinberg, award-winning editorial and commercial freelance photographer

Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc

Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc., is a nonprofit Massachusetts corporation operated by Boston University students. It publishes the student paper The Daily Free Press.^[4]

References