The Courier (Newcastle University newspaper)
Type | Weekly student newspaper |
---|---|
Format | Broadsheet |
Owner(s) | Newcastle University Students' Union |
Editor | George Boatfield (2021/22 Academic Year) |
Deputy editor | Muslim Taseer (2021/22 Academic Year) |
Founded | 1948 |
Language | English |
Headquarters | Newcastle University Students Union, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne |
Circulation | 12,000[1] |
Website | http://www.thecourieronline.co.uk/ |
The Courier is the free student weekly newspaper of Newcastle University's Students' Union. It is entirely written and edited by student volunteers, except for the chief editor, which is a paid sabbatical officer position in the students union. Articles which are included in the 40-page print edition are also published online. The newspaper is divided into sections, including news, comment, sport, puzzles, lifestyle, music, film, TV, beauty, fashion, travel, arts, gaming and science.
History[]
Established in 1948 as King's Courier, while Newcastle University was still incorporated within Durham University as King's College, the first issue was published on 18 November 1948.[2] Several of the paper's founders, including its first editor Stuart Shaw and business manager Allan Marsh, had previously helped to set up Palatinate, a newspaper for students at both the Newcastle and Durham divisions of the University, but poor sales in Newcastle prompted Palatinate to refocus as a Durham-only publication after just three issues.[3][4]
The paper was initially published fortnightly but became a weekly paper in 1960, when the name was shortened to The Courier. The paper expanded through the 1990s and 2000s and is currently 40 pages long. In 2003 a separate culture magazine, Pulp, was launched, which later became a pull-out of the main paper and was reintegrated completely in 2009. Since then, new sections such as lifestyle, science, gaming and travel have been launched within the paper.[5]
The Courier became a free publication in 2002, and after several short-lived websites, thecourieronline.co.uk launched in 2009, giving the paper a regular presence online.
Since 1975, the editor has been elected by a cross-campus ballot of students, with the role becoming a sabbatical position in 1992, making The Courier one of the only student newspapers with a full-time paid editor.
The current weekly readership is around 18,000, mostly students at the university. The newspaper is published on a Monday every week during term-time.
Awards[]
The Courier has won numerous awards[1] including The Guardian's Student Newspaper of the Year award in 1994, 2012 and 2013.[6] In 2008, The Courier design editor Kerry Hyndman came runner up in The Guardian's student media award for design for her work on the newspaper's entertainment pull-out, Pulp.[7] As part of a redesign of the paper in 2009–2010 Pulp, which was originally independent of The Courier, was discontinued and replaced by a lifestyle section fully integrated into the main body of the paper.
References[]
- ^ a b "About The Courier". Newcastle University Union Society. Retrieved 2008-09-01.
- ^ "The future of King's". The Courier. 18 November 1948. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
- ^ "Dynamo slant... Allan Marsh". The Courier. 9 February 1950. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
- ^ "Editorial". Palatinate. 22 June 1948. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
- ^ "History of the Courier". Newcastle University Special Collections. Newcastle University. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
- ^ "Newcastle University's the Courier wins student publication of the year". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
- ^ "On course to win". The Guardian. 2008-09-29. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
External links[]
- Student newspapers published in the United Kingdom
- Mass media in Newcastle upon Tyne
- 1948 establishments in England
- Newcastle University
- Publications established in 1948
- Newspapers published in England stubs