Roar News

Roar News
Type Three times yearly newspaper
Format Tabloid
Owner(s) King's College London Students' Union
Publisher Mortons Print
Founded 1973
Political alignment None
Headquarters Macadam Building, King's College London, Strand, London
Circulation 3,000
Website roarnews.co.uk

Roar News is the student newspaper of King's College London. It is editorially independent of both the university and the students' union and has a website.[1]

The newspaper won six awards in 2015, including Best Website, Best Publication and Best Design. In 2014 it won several others including a Mind Media Award and Student Media of the Year.

Roar has existed in various incarnations since 1973, but in 1992 its name was changed from Casey L to Roar News - named after the university's mascot, Reggie the lion. Roar prints three times a year, spending most of its energy on bringing students and staff up-to-the-minute news online.

Former editors, writers and photographers now work for national news outlets such as The Sun, Press Association, The Independent The Daily Mail, Time Out Magazine, The Times and Sky.

History

Roar has existed in various formats, as a magazine, then a tabloid newspaper. It was turned into a full colour, glossy magazine in 2006 but has since been re-branded as a tabloid, borrowing the style of The Sun and The Mirror newspapers in its layout.[2]

It once fell under complete editorial control of the Vice-President Media and Publications, Vice-President Communications and Vice-President Student Media and Engagement, with shifts in the nature of its editorial independence, but in 2010 a student editor was appointed.

The correct version of the newspaper's full name is Roar News, although it is typically shortened to Roar. The newspaper's name has changed the punctuation and style many times over the years which often leads to it wrongly being called ROAR, ROAR! or Roar!.

Awards

In 2018, Roar picked up a total of five Highly Commended Awards at the Student Publication Association. Nominated in five categories, the paper was commended in all five: Best News Story, Best Multi-Media Journalism Story, Best Newspaper Design, Best Student Photographer and Best Lifestyle Story.

In 2017, Roar won a Highly Commended Award at the Student Publication Association for Best Feature.

Roar picked up six awards at the Student Publication Association in 2015. The paper won Best Publication, Best Website, Best Design and Best Entertainment Piece. It received a highly commended for Best News Story and Best Feature.

Roar's editorial team won the Anna Sargent Student Journalist Award at the Mind Media Awards for outstanding mental health reporting in November 2014.[3]

The newspaper was also shortlisted alongside The Guardian and Cosmopolitan for the non-student award of Best Publication.[4]

Roar won Best Website in the 2014 Student Publication Association awards and received a special recognition for Best Publication.[5]

Alongside KCL Radio, KingsTV and Photosoc, Roar was ranked as one of the top three best student media outlets in the country at the NUS Awards 2014. KCLSU Student Media received runner up in the Student Media of the Year category.[6]

Campaigns

True to its tabloid style, Roar runs traditional tabloid campaigns on matters of student interest. Recent campaigns have included:

  • Health Schools job cuts (May 2014 – present) Roar came out against university plans to cut 120 jobs in Health Schools in a leader[3] accusing the College of lacking transparency and racing through the redundancy process too quickly.
  • London Living Wage (Feb 2014 - March 2014) As part of the campaign, Roar ran an interview with two anonymous King's cleaners who couldn't afford to feed their children[4] on the front page of their February edition.[5] That edition of the paper was taken into the College Council meeting in March, where King's agreed to the London Living Wage.
  • Lord Carey 'homophobic' comments (Nov 2012–Feb 2015) Roar campaigned for the removal of King's alumnus Lord Carey from the Strand Campus windows[6] for controversial comments about same sex marriage at a Conservative Party conference fringe event in 2012.[7]
  • Mental health awareness (Nov 2013–present) Roar produced a special print edition on mental health[8] in November 2013, aiming to raise awareness of mental health among King's students. It included articles such as 'We need racially diverse counsellors' and an interview with King's alumnus Rory Bremner on his ADHD.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "Roar wins best website". King's College London.
  2. ↑ "Roar!". Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  3. ↑ "Roar! says: When King's want staff culled, they'll barely give them time to scream before 'letting them go'". 2014-06-23.
  4. ↑ "Our cleaners in poverty say: "King's are greedy and selfish"". 2014-03-03.
  5. ↑ "Roar! News February 2014 print edition".
  6. ↑ http://roarnews.co.uk/wordpress/?s=lord+carey. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. ↑ 2012, 1:00PM GMT 20 Feb (20 February 2012). "Lord Carey: gay marriage would be 'cultural vandalism'". Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  8. 1 2 "Mental Health edition of Roar! News". November 2013.
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