Columbia Daily Spectator

An issue of the Columbia Spectator.

Spectator is published by Spectator Publishing Company Inc, an independent 501(c)(3) corporation.[2] Spectator Publishing Company was formed in 1962[3] and has been independent of Columbia University since then. The president of the Spectator Publishing Company also serves as the editor in chief 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, illustrations, graphics, copy, and business. The Business & Innovations departments, which oversee the newspaper's advertising, finances, and alumni relations, are headed by the publisher.

Spec is currently run by the 145th 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 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 created by their department editor that test them on fundamentals. Finally, they complete the Turkeyshoots process with an interview. 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. It folded within the year.

The next year, in February 2006, the paper launched a series of blogs, SpecBlogs. It was 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).[4]

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.

In January 2018, Spec launched a branded content studio, Spectator Brand Studios. It was the second Ivy League paper to do this, after the Harvard Crimson.

In April 2014, Spectator announced it would become the first Ivy League newspaper to cut its daily print for a weekly distribution to focus on digital content and increase revenue.[5] The plan was approved shortly thereafter by the Board of Trustees, passing 7 to 4. John R. MacArthur, one of the members of the board, resigned in protest of the decision, but the paper did see the expected revenue increase.[6]

Spectator has been criticized publicly by staff members over the years for obscuring its election procedures. On October 16, 2009, Ryan Bubinski, then the online editor of Spec, shut down the website in protest of a constitutional violation.[7] The website was restored on the 18th, and Bubinski left the staff of the newspaper.[8] The lack of a constitution brought renewed protests in 2018 when concerns over potential prior misconduct of a staffer surfaced during the Turkeyshoots process. The Corporate Board of Spectator followed an internal policy to investigate the claims, which was not made public to staffers. Following the Turkeyshoots season, the majority of the newspaper's Sports section resigned in protest.[9]

In 2018 and 2019, work by journalists at the paper played an important role in uncovering the plagiarism scandal around Charles K. Armstrong, a professor of history at Columbia University.[10] It also, in 2019, found that a number of professors accused or found guilty of sexual misconduct remained on campus, breaking news that English professor Michael Golston had been found guilty of sexually assaulting a student.[11]

Editor in Chief: Sarah Braka
Managing Editor: Elizabeth Karpen
Publisher: Tamarah Wallace
News Editors: Dia Gill and Sofia Kwon
Opinion Editor: Ryan Oden
Arts & Entertainment Editor: Noah Sheidlower
Sports Editors: Clara Ence Morse and Mackenzie George
Graphics Editor: Jessica Li
Illustrations Editor: Brenda Huang
Photo Editor: Beatrice Shlansky
Managing Editor of The Eye: Claudia Gohn
Head Copy Editor: Emma Bradbury
Head of Product: Cindy Espinosa
Head of Engineering: Erin McNulty
Revenue Director: Joy Fan
Engagement Director: Roxane Carre [12]

• David Alpern, former senior writer and current contributing editor for Newsweek
• Lou Antonelli, Texas-based science fiction and fantasy author
• R.W. Apple, senior staff writer for The New York Times, serving as a foreign correspondent for over 30 years
• Roone Arledge, sportscaster and head of ABC News; created 20/20 and Nightline in addition to Monday Night Football
• Naftali Bendavid political reporter for The Wall Street Journal and author of The Thumpin': How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to Be Ruthless and Ended the Republican Revolution
• Arnold Beichman, conservative commentator
• Damien Bona, former Daily Spectator film critic, film historian and co-author of "Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards"[14]
• Katherine Boo, writer for The New Yorker and winner of the Pulitzer Prize
• Marcus Brauchli, former executive editor of The Washington Post and former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal
• Robert Neil Butler, geriatrician
• Ben Casselman, economics reporter for The New York Times
• Bennett Cerf, co-founder of Random House
• Isadora Cerullo, Olympic rugby player
• Ariana Cha, The Washington Post
• Elizabeth Cohen, CNN reporter
• Matthew Cooper, Portfolio columnist
• Matthew Continetti, writer at The Weekly Standard
• David Denby, staff writer for The New Yorker
• I.A.L. Diamond, screenwriter
• Morris Dickstein, noted literary critic and professor at CUNY
• Joe Ferullo, Vice President of Programming and Development for CBS Paramount Domestic Television
• Max Frankel, former executive editor of The New York Times
• Ruth Franklin (née Ruth Halikman), senior literary editor at The New Republic
• Robert Friedman, editor-at-large at Bloomberg
• Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission
• Robert Giroux, publisher
• Ralph J. Gleason, music critic
• Neil Gorsuch, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
• Alfred Harcourt, publisher
• Reed Harris, expelled for 20 days, author of King Football, journalist, civil servant, target of McCarthyism
• Langston Hughes, poet, novelist and playwright
• Dan Janison, reporter and columnist for New York Newsday
• David Kaczynski, younger brother of Ted Kaczynski
• Jack Kerouac, Beat Generation novelist
• Bob Klapisch, sportswriter for The Record
• Vi Kyuin Wellington Koo, Chinese diplomat
• Adam B. Kushner, editor of the Outlook section at The Washington Post[15]
• Tony Kushner, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright; author of Angels in America
• Arthur Lazarus, Jr., attorney for Indian tribes
• Jonathan Lemire, national political reporter for the Associated Press
• Arthur M. Louis, former long-time writer with Fortune magazine, free-lance writer and author
• John R. MacArthur, publisher of Harper's magazine
• Dienda Madiq, music promoter
• Herman J. Mankiewicz, screenwriter
• Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Academy award-winning movie director
• Sam Marchiano, sportscaster, currently for MLB.com
• Graham Moore, Academy award-winning screenwriter
• Michael Mukasey, former US Attorney General
• Pat Mullins, Chairman of Virginia Republican Party
• Michael Musto, New York City journalist and media gadfly
• Bernard W. Nussbaum, former White House counsel to President Bill Clinton
• Jim Ogle, longtime sportswriter for The Star-Ledger and chronicler of the New York Yankees
• Beto O'Rourke, U.S. Representative. Wrote for Spectator under the name Robert O'Rourke.
• Jed Perl, author and art critic of The New Republic
• Joshua Prager, author and previous special senior projects reporter for The Wall Street Journal
• Ted Rall, political cartoonist
• Ian Rapoport, sportswriter and television analyst, NFL Network
• Roger Rubin, sportswriter, New York Daily News
• Rob Saliterman, former spokesman for former President George W. Bush
• Nick Schifrin, correspondent for PBS NewsHour and former foreign correspondent for ABC News and Al Jazeera America
• Warren St. John, The New York Times reporter and author
• Nick Summers, Bloomberg Businessweek editor and co-founder of IvyGate
• Lee C. Townsend, News Editor, CBS Evening News (Cronkite & Rather)
• Richard Wald, former president of NBC
• Steven Waldman, journalist and founder of Beliefnet.com
• Michael Waldman, speechwriter and advisor for President Bill Clinton
• Sharon Waxman, The New York Times reporter
• James Wechsler, chief editor of the New York Post
• Lis Wiehl, legal commentator for Fox News
• Beau Willimon, creator, producer and writer of U.S. miniseries House of Cards
• Herman Wouk, author
• Paul Zimmerman, columnist for Sports Illustrated (as "Dr. Z")

• Columbia University
• Morningside Heights
• List of New York City newspapers and magazines

• Columbia Daily Spectator online
• "The Eye weekly magazine". Archived from the original on 2006-10-16. Retrieved 2017-08-11.
• "Spectrum blog". Archived from the original on 2010-11-03. Retrieved 2017-08-11.
• Spectator Publishing Company
• Columbia Daily Spectator archive