Daily Bruin

Frequency and governance

When classes are in session, the Bruin is published Monday through Friday during the school year, twice a week during the last week of the quarter, once a week during finals week, and once a week on Mondays in the summer quarter. The Bruin's staff also publishes prime, a quarterly lifestyle magazine, and Bruinwalk.com, a professor and apartment review site.

It is published by the ASUCLA Communications Board, which sets policies for the newspaper and other campus communications media. The current editor in chief is Tanner Walters.

Daily Bruin editorial team has 14 editorial departments: news writing, sports writing, arts & entertainment writing, opinion writing, radio and podcast journalism, infographic reporting, blogging, digital development, video journalism, copy editing, photojournalism, page design, prime magazine and cartoons and illustration.

Location

The Daily Bruin office and newsroom is located on the first floor of Kerckhoff Hall, Room 118.

Nomenclature

The Daily Bruin was preceded by the weekly Normal Outlook on the campus of UCLA's predecessor, the Los Angeles State Normal School, from 1910 through 1918 or 1919 (the records are incomplete).

Upon the establishment in fall 1919 of the Southern Branch of the University of California, as UCLA was first known, the twice-weekly Cub Californian was first issued on Sept. 29, 1919. Its name was changed to the California Grizzly with the issue of March 21, 1924, and on Sept. 13, 1925 it began to publish five days a week.

On October 22, 1926, the newspaper became known as the California Daily Bruin. During World War II it reduced its publication frequency to three times a week under the title California Bruin, reverting to a daily publication at war's end. On April 2, 1948, the name was changed to UCLA Daily Bruin.

Control

The newspaper has generally been under control of the student organization now known as the Associated Students UCLA, or ASUCLA, although during the summer sessions of the 1920s and 1930s "the newspapers were used as laboratory papers for journalism classes, with financial support coming directly from the University." In the 1950s the Summer Bruin was again taken over by the Administration, and '"controversial social issues" were banned from print during the summers.

Until 1955 the Associated Students was considered the publisher of the Daily Bruin, sometimes directly under the student council and sometimes with the interposition of a Publications Board. Editors were named by the student council. This system resulted in frequent political struggles between the staff (which nominated candidates for the key editorial positions) and the student council.

During the height of the McCarthy era, with the newspaper staff being accused of Communist leanings, the administration in 1955 revised the governance of the paper and instituted a system whereby the student body itself elected the editor (see below). "Editors had to run for elective office just like politicians, and the newspaper was closely controlled by the [student] Council," wrote William C. Ackerman, the ASUCLA graduate administrator.

The practice of student election of editors ended in 1963 with the establishment of the ASUCLA Communications Board, a student-led organization that selects the editors of the Bruin as well as the editors for the other seven newsmagazines.

'Hell's Bells'

In 1926, editor John F. Cohee was expelled from school by Ernest Carroll Moore, the campus administrator and director, for what Moore called "certain indecent statements which affront the good name of the women of the University." These were apparently a tongue-in-cheek "report" that some sorority women had been seen cavorting nude in the Pacific Ocean surf.

This article was included in a twice-yearly burlesque edition of the Daily Bruin known as "Hell's Bells." (Cohee transferred to the Berkeley campus and was graduated there in 1927. He later went on to become a professional reporter.)

Three years later Director Moore suspended 14 students for publishing in the January 23, 1929, issue of "Hell's Bells" "the filthiest and most indecent piece of printed matter that any of us has ever seen." Some of those students were later reinstated. That was the last issue of "Hell's Bells."

1954 protest and student election of editors

On December 15, 1954, the editor of the Daily Bruin and a group of 250 students demonstrated against administrative action that required the newspaper to adopt a constitution "because it would otherwise be operating 'under sufferance and illegally.'" Dean of Student Milton E. Hahn had sent a memorandum to Chancellor Raymond B. Allen on Dec. 7. 1954, "after a preparation period of almost two years." He wrote:

For twenty years there has been no commonly accepted policy regarding the student publications at U.C.L.A. The Bruin has been the chief problem. It has been a prime target for Marxist groups which, at times, have had almost complete control.

"We have gathered here for the mock funeral of The Daily Bruin as a free newspaper," said editor Martin McReynolds. "The Bruin is not actually dead yet, but on the students' action will depend whether it will live or die."

The response was sparked by the actions of the UCLA administration in the preceding years. During the summer of 1954, Hahn proceeded in his attempt to bring about a more "responsible" Bruin. Eventually, on November 23, 1954, President Sproul granted approval by telegram for a new student-election plan for the Daily Bruin. The Bruin was not informed of any of the changes to the editorial structure, though editor McReynolds caught word of the plan and wrote an editorial on Dec. 8, stating that "Someone, probably the Administration, has been planning this change for at least six weeks. The planning has all been kept secret from The Daily Bruin and the students at large." December 8 was the same day Hahn submitted the plan to the Student Council.

There were to be student elections for editor, who would name his own editorial board, subject to approval by the Student Council and veto by the Administration. Because of lack of time, elections would not be held in the spring semester, but an editorial board would be chosen by a two-man committee composed of Student Body President Skip Byrne and an Administration representative.

In addition to this limitation, the plan required that:

A total of 3,004 signatures, representing one-fifth of the student body, were collected for a petition to be sent to Sproul to retract the plan. The number of signatures was about a thousand more than the number of student who voted in the preceding ASUCLA election.

Loud Bark and Curious Eyes states that Sproul

. . . asserted in an unpublicized memo to Allen that it was a "local matter" for UCLA authorities alone to decide, though he did not mention the series of memoranda in the Berkeley office nor his own telegram of Nov. 23.

The Bruin staff nominated six candidates to become editors the following year, but all six were rejected by the selection committee appointed to decide on the new editors.

Into the 21st Century

In 2013, the Daily Bruin’s publisher laid off most of its full-time employees, following more than a decade of consistently declining advertising revenues that reflected the national newspaper industry. Despite layoffs, it has retained UCLA Student Media Director Doria Deen, editorial advisor Abigail Goldman and Business Manager Jeremy Wildman.

In spring 2016, UCLA's student body voted in favor of the Daily Bruin and Bruinwalk.com Referendum, which guaranteed student fees to support The Bruin as its print advertising revenues continue to decline.

The Stack

The "Daily Bruin" implemented a data journalism and newsroom tech blog called "The Stack," taking public data and organizing it into quantitative graphics and visualizations. Some of "The Stack's" projects have included examining data from University of California employee pay, weaknesses in campus computer systems, and allocation of funds to UCLA's student organizations from the student government. "The Stack" also makes all the code on its blog available under open-source licenses on GitHub.

Stonewall

In 2013, the "Daily Bruin" created the "Stonewall" as an online record of sources who "stonewalled," or refused to speak, with reporters. The "Stonewall" was created in effort to maintain transparency with readers about individuals in the community who unjustly thwarted "Daily Bruin" reporters' attempts at providing information. The most recent stone added to the "Stonewall" was on January 1, 2015, for when the Diversity Chancellor Search Committee refused to release its list of names of candidates.

Normal Outlook

Cub Californian

California Grizzly

Daily Bruin

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

Awards and recognition

The Daily Bruin and its staffers earn honors at local, state, regional and national levels on an annual basis. Listed below are some of the prominent honors the Daily Bruin has received organizationally. Years noted represent the previous school year, unless otherwise noted.

National

Associated Collegiate Press – Pacemaker Awards

Society of Professional Journalists – National Mark of Excellence Awards

Regional

Society of Professional Journalists – Region 11 Mark of Excellence Awards

State

California College Media Association – Excellence in Student Media Awards

California Newspaper Publishers Association – Campus Excellence in Journalism Awards

Local

Los Angeles Press Club – SoCal Journalism Awards

Daily Bruin Hall of Fame

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Other Notable Alumni (chronological)

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If not cited here, references can be found within the articles.