Columbia Daily Spectator is the weekly student newspaper of Columbia University. It is published at 112th and Broadway in New York, New York. Founded in 1877, it is the oldest continuously operating college news daily in the nation after The Harvard Crimson, and has been legally independent of the university since 1962. During the academic term, it is published online Monday through Friday and printed every Thursday. In addition to serving as a campus newspaper, Spec, as it is commonly known, also reports the latest news of the surrounding Morningside Heights community. The paper is delivered each week to over 150 locations throughout the Morningside Heights neighborhood.
Spectator is published by Spectator Publishing Company Inc, an independent 501(c)(3) corporation. Spectator Publishing Company was formed in 1962 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, design, online, production, copy, and business. The business departments, which oversee the newspaper's advertising, finances, and alumni relations, are headed by the publisher.
Spec is currently run by the 141st 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 grueling 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 made up by their department editor that test them on fundamentals. Finally, they go through the turkeyshoots, an interview in which the current managing board grills the applicant on why the applicant feels that they would be a good fit for the position. 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. They were 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).
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.
Editor in Chief: Catie Edmondson
Managing Editor: J. Clara Chan
Publisher: Anurak Saelaow
News Editors: Aaron Holmes, Jessica Spitz
Editorial Page Editor: Hannah Barbosa-Cesnik
Sports Editor: Austin Horn
Head Copy Editor: Kaatje Greenberg
Photo Editor: Yasmine Akki
Design Editor: Amanda Frame
Managing Editor, The Eye: Rebecca Ausseil
Spectrum Editor: Veronica Grace Taleon
Deputy Publisher: Michael Tai
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
Chris Beam, The New Republic reporter and co-founder of IvyGate
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"
Katherine Boo, writer for The New Yorker and winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Marcus Brauchli, executive editor of the Washington Post and former managing editor of the Wall Street Journal
Robert Neil Butler, geriatrician
Ben Casselman, economics reporter for FiveThirtyEight, formerly energy reporter for the Wall Street Journal
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, United States Circuit Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
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
Jack Kerouac, Beat Generation novelist
Bob Klapisch, sportswriter for The Record
Vi Kyuin Wellington Koo, Chinese diplomat
Adam B. Kushner, editor of PostEverything at the Washington Post
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
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
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, Pakistan correspondent for ABC News
Warren St. John, New York Times reporter and author
Nick Summers, Bloomberg Businessweek reporter and co-founder of IvyGate
Lee C. Townsend, News Editor, CBS Evening News (Cronkite & Rather)
Dick Wald, former president of NBC
Steven Waldman, journalist and founder of Beliefnet.com
Michael Waldman, speechwriter and advisor for President Bill Clinton
Sharon Waxman, 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")
Bruce Mayrock, Student activist and self-immolator
