The Courier (Newcastle University newspaper)
Type | Weekly student newspaper |
---|---|
Format | Broadsheet |
Owner(s) | Newcastle University Students' Union |
Editor | James Sproston (2017/18 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 entirely written and edited by student volunteers, except for chief editor, which a paid sabbatical officer position at Students Union. Articles included in the 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 every week during term time, usually on a Monday unless a major news or sports event warrants a delay, such as the Stan Calvert cup. The current editor is James Sproston, who succeeded Jade Holroyd in the summer of 2017.
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 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 Courier.
References
- 1 2 "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