The Daily Princetonian

The Daily Princetonian

The Daily Princetonian, February 22, 2012
Type	Daily student newspaper
Format	Color Broadsheet
School	Princeton University
Owner(s)	The Daily Princetonian Publishing Co.
Editor-in-chief	Emma Treadway
Founded	1876
Headquarters	48 University Place Princeton, NJ 08540
ISSN	0885-7601
Website	www.dailyprincetonian.com

The Daily Princetonian, otherwise known as The Princetonian or the 'Prince', is the daily independent student newspaper of Princeton University. Founded on June 14, 1876 as The Princetonian, it changed its name to The Daily Princetonian in 1892. It is the second oldest daily college newspaper in the country. It has a daily circulation of 2,000 and has around 30,000 daily online hits.

Its alumni include journalists at The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as Pulitzer Prize winners.

History

19th century

The Prince is the second oldest daily college newspaper in America. The paper was founded on June 14, 1876 as a biweekly publication named The Princetonian. As the college grew, the paper grew: it became a weekly in 1883 and a tri-weekly in 1885. The name would change to The Daily Princetonian when it was produced five afternoons a week in 1892; in 1895, it was produced six mornings a week. Early issues of the Prince called for unproctored examinations, a policy introduced with the implementation of the honor code system at the college in 1893. Another issue published a telegraphic report of a baseball game, one of the first times a college used a telegraph in its coverage.

20th century

Throughout the pre-WWI years, the Prince saw improvements in its coverage and editorial policy. Woodrow Wilson was frequently covered as both the university and later United States president. In 1910, it incorporated Associated Press dispatches. It advocated for the abolition of mandatory chapel attendance, supported women's suffrage, and reinforced the ongoing revolt against the campus eating clubs. The 1920s saw the paper become more light-hearted, with the introduction of popular humorous columns, a weekly photograph supplement, and annual pieces like an April Fool's story.

The 1930s saw the paper have a more serious role. It partnered with The Harvard Crimson to persuade students to advocate against prohibition. It covered the ongoing world tension at the time preceding WWII, opening columns for those for and against U.S. intervention. Publication was suspended in February 1943 until the conclusion of the war. After the war, the Prince covered the death of Albert Einstein, the election of Robert Goheen a mere three hours after the faculty meeting, and other topics regarding university administration and sports. A common topic for news and editorials were eating clubs elections and debates over their social life influence.

In the1960s, the Prince published articles on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the subsequent week-long cancellation of university events. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination saw the publication of letters, editorials, and more discussing his influence and further action for students. The paper continued as a progressive force, calling for coeducation and requesting increased resources targeted at minority enrollment. The Prince took a forward role in student activism against the Vietnam War, organizing events and playing a central force for a two-week recess so students could campaign for the November elections. In 1976, the paper celebrated its hundredth anniversary and held a seminar and two-day symposium.

21st century

In January 2007, the Prince caused controversy when it published a fictitious article in its joke issue, which referenced a lawsuit by Jian Li, who sued Princeton alleging that he was denied admission for being Asian. It received complaints for its purposeful use of broken English and offensive stereotypes towards Asian-Americans. The Prince issued a statement concerning its motivations and expectations for the piece, stating that it did not mean to be offensive but rather satirical.

The paper's archives were digitized in 2012 and were named in honor of a long-time employee, Larry DuPraz. In 2021, the paper began publishing digital articles daily and print articles weekly.

Organization

The Prince is owned by The Daily Princetonian Publishing Co., which is controlled by a Board of Trustees of mostly former Princeton editors and staffers. The organization is a registered nonprofit, and the organization and newspaper are independent from the university. The paper is produced and managed by a staff of around 200 undergraduate students and has an annual budget of more than $600,000. Its headquarters is located at 48 University Place on Princeton University's campus. The Prince has a daily print circulation of 2,000, and its website receives roughly 30,000 daily hits.

The paper is managed by an editor-in-chief and a business manager, and its staff is grouped into various sections, like news, sports, opinions, and more. In 1974, the Prince elected its first woman business manager, Judy E. Piper; in 1978, it elected its first woman editor, Anne C. Mackay-Smith.

Awards

In 2012, the Prince received a Silver Crown in the college newspaper category from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. The paper was a 2014 finalist for the Associated College Press Online National Pacemaker Award.

Notable alumni

Government and politics

Pictured with the board of editors of the Princetonian in 1878, Woodrow Wilson (seated, second from right) served as managing editor

• Elena Kagan '81, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
• Jacob D. Beam '29, U.S. ambassador
• Denny Chin '75, judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, presided over U.S. v. Madoff
• Shelby Cullom Davis '30, U.S. ambassador and founder of Concerned Alumni of Princeton
• Robert H. McBride '40, U.S. ambassador
• Livingston T. Merchant '26, U.S. ambassador
• Adlai Stevenson '22, Governor of Illinois, Democratic Party nominee for president in 1952 and 1956, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
• Woodrow Wilson 1879, president of Princeton University, Governor of New Jersey and President of the United States
• Charles Woodruff Yost '28, American foreign service officer, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
• James H. Douglas, Jr. '20, Secretary of the Air Force
• James Forrestal '15, first United States Secretary of Defense
• John Marshall Harlan II '20, Supreme Court justice
• Chris Lu '88, former White House cabinet secretary
• James H. Billington '50, Librarian of Congress
• Charles Fried '56, former United States Solicitor General and Harvard Law School professor
• Joseph Nye '58, former dean of John F. Kennedy School of Government and international relations expert

Journalists

• Clifford J. Levy '89, New York Times deputy metro editor
• Robert Caro '57, Pulitzer Prize-winning non-fiction writer
• Grant Wahl '96, Sports Illustrated senior writer
• Barton Gellman '82, editor at The Washington Post and Pulitzer Prize-winner
• Joel Achenbach '82, writer for The Washington Post and author of the Post's Achenblog
• R.W. Apple, Jr. '57, writer for The New York Times
• Hamilton Fish Armstrong '14, editor of Foreign Policy
• William Attwood '41, U.S. Ambassador and publisher of Newsday
• Kate Betts, '86, editor of Harper's Bazaar
• Bosley Crowther '28, film critic at the New York Times
• Frank Deford '61, writer for Sports Illustrated and broadcaster on U.S. radio and television.
• F. Scott Fitzgerald '17, novelist and short-story author.
• Donald Kirk '1959, national correspondent, Chicago Tribune
• Richard Kluger '56, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, journalist and book publisher
• John B. Oakes '34, editorial page editor, The New York Times
• Don Oberdorfer '52, writer for The Washington Post, current professor at Johns Hopkins University
• Norimitsu Onishi '92, reporter for The New York Times
• T.R. Reid '66, former correspondent, The Washington Post and bestselling non-fiction author.
• James Ridgeway '59, editor and writer, New Republic and Village Voice
• Mark Stevens '73, art critic for New York Magazine and co-author of De Kooning: An American Master
• John Stossel '69, ABC News anchor/correspondent
• Annalyn Swan '73, co-author of 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning De Kooning: An American Master, current member of the Prince board of trustees
• John S. Martin '23, managing editor, Time Magazine
• Thomas E. Weber '89, columnist, The Daily Beast and former Wall Street Journal bureau chief
• Christine Whelan '99, contributor to Wall Street Journal and others, author of Why Smart Men Marry Smart Women
• William Greider '58, national affairs correspondent for The Nation and former reporter for Rolling Stone and PBS Frontline.
• Robin Herman '73, Associate Dean for Research Communications at Harvard School of Public Health and former reporter for The Washington Post and The New York Times
• Dori Jones Yang '76, International Business Editor, Bureau Manager in Hong Kong and Bureau Manager in Seattle during career for Business Week
• Catherine Rampell '07, founding editor of New York Times Economix blog. Washington Post columnist

Other

• Edward W. Barrett '32, Dean, Columbia School of Journalism
• John V. Fleming GS '63, emeritus professor at Princeton and long-time columnist.
• Richard Halliburton '21, world traveler, explorer, and writer
• John D. Rockefeller III '29, philanthropist
• Henry Burchard Fine 1880, dean of sciences at Princeton and namesake of Fine Hall on the Princeton campus.

References

Bibliography

• Schmitt, Judy Piper, ed. (1977). The Prince Remembers: One Hundred Years of The Daily Princetonian. Princeton, N.J.: Daily Princetonian Publishing Co. OCLC 21486521.
• Leitch, Alexander (1978). A Princeton Companion. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-04654-9.

Further reading

• The Orange & Black in Black & White: A Century of Princeton through the Eyes of the Daily Princetonian. Princeton, N.J.: Daily Princetonian Publishing Co. 1992. OCLC 25025451.