The Daily Nebraskan
The Daily Nebraskan, established in 1871 as the Monthly Hesperian Student, is the student newspaper of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Although many journalism students work there, the Daily Nebraskan is independent of the university's College of Journalism and Mass Communications. The newspaper is entirely student-produced and managed, but it has a longtime professional business manager, Dan Shattil.
 Title page of the October 17, 1902 issue | |
| School | University of Nebraska–Lincoln |
|---|---|
| Launched | 1871 |
| Language | English |
| City | Lincoln, Nebraska |
| Website | dailynebraskan |
The paper publishes every school day during the fall and spring semesters, with the exceptions of the Tuesday before Thanksgiving break and the last four days of finals week. It publishes weekly during summer sessions. The newspaper covers campus and Lincoln news, along with arts, entertainment and sports. There is also an opinion page featuring student columnists. In addition, other articles published include the 1948 Nebraska parking riots, the campus strike of 1970, and articles that were written by Warren Buffett's parents.
History
The Daily Nebraskan was first published as a monthly and a weekly before becoming a daily paper. As the newspaper's style and content changed so did its identity and own moniker. From 1871 to 1885 the paper was published by the Palladian Literary Society and called the Monthly Hesperian Student.[1] The first editor of the Hesperian was W.L. Sweet and the paper contained only six sections.
In 1885 the name was shortened to the Hesperian. At that time the University of Nebraska–Lincoln had multiple student publications. One of these The Nebraskan, also known as The Rag after its editor, was founded in 1894 by Frank T. Riley. For seven years UNL would have two weekly newspapers until on January 13, 1901, The Daily Nebraskan was organized. A consolidation of The Hesperian and The Nebraskan the evolved newspaper flourished beyond rival publications.[2]
While the editorship of the paper was first elected by the student body as an official publication the paper is now financially supported by the University and more work is published. Of its leaders the most well known is Willa Cather the notable Nebraska author. In 1892 Cather became the literary editor of The Hesperian and a year later in November 1893 she is named the managing editor. Cather would hold this position until she graduates from the university in 1895.[3]
In the mid-2000s, the daily paper converted to publishing tri-weekly, on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Later, it switched to a twice a week schedule. Beginning in the fall of 2017, the DN was to complete its transition to a digital-first publication at its dailynebraskan.com web address, and was to print a monthly newsmagazine.
Satire
Throughout its publication the Daily Nebraskan has always included pieces of satire. For most of its history the paper collected articles with a satirical tone over the course of the year and assembled them together for the April 1st publication. Iterations of this special daily edition were sometimes jokingly referred to as the Daily Halfaskan. Like the front page included on the left, the satirical papers published on April Fools were humorous and lampooned facets of university life in Nebraska.
Students of satire at UNL found this single issue of satire too limiting a venue and decided to launch a new student paper. In 2008 The DailyER was launched as a bi-weekly publication dedication to satirical and radical news.[4]
References
- Walter, Katherine. "About The Daily Nebraska". Nebraska Newspapers. University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
- Nebraska Newspapers: Digitizing Nebraska's History: The Daily Nebraskan.
- Jewell, Andrew. "Chronology Willa Cather, 1873-1947". Willa Cather Archive. University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
- "About - The DailyER". The DailyER. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
Further reading
Katherine, Walter. "About The Daily Nebraskan". Nebraska Newspapers. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Retrieved 25 October 2016. This site allows users the ability to read all of the issues of The Daily Nebraskan published between 1901 and 1976 as they were published in PDF format.