Type Student newspaper Editor-in-chief Ritchie Lee | Format Broadsheet Managing editors Andrea Platten | |
Owner(s) Independent Berkeley Students Publishing Company, Inc. News editor Jessica Lynn
Cassandra Vogel | ||
The Daily Californian (or Daily Cal) is an independent, student-run newspaper that serves the University of California, Berkeley campus and its surrounding community. It publishes a print edition four days a week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday during the academic year, and twice a week during the summer. Established in 1871, The Daily Californian is one of the oldest newspapers on the West Coast, and one of the oldest college newspapers in the United States. Current circulation is about 10,000 for a campus of roughly 35,000 students.
Contents
History
The Daily Californian became independent from UC Berkeley in 1971 after the campus administration fired three senior editors over an editorial that encouraged readers to "take back" People's Park. Both sides came to an agreement, and The Daily Californian gained financial and editorial independence from the university and is now published by an independent corporation called the Independent Berkeley Students Publishing Company, Inc. The paper licenses its name from the Regents of the University of California.
On November 24, 1982, three days after the November 20th Big Game (now known for The Play), early morning readers of the Daily Cal were chagrined to find in the headline of the front page: "NCAA Awards Big Game to Stanford." Hundreds of copies of the Daily Cal with this fake headline had been strewn about campus in the wee hours. This was in fact a hoax perpetrated by aggrieved Stanford fans.
The Daily Californian has a history of publishing spirited editorials, and in some cases editions containing controversial editorials have been subjected to newspaper theft. In 2002, Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates agreed to pay restitution after admitting to having thrown away a thousand copies of The Daily Californian after it endorsed his opponent, then-Mayor Shirley Dean. In May 2003, nearly 5,000 papers were stolen by students protesting coverage of the arrest of a Cal football player. The largest act of theft took place in November 1996 when the paper's senior editorial board endorsed Proposition 209. Nearly 23,000 papers were stolen on Election Day 1996, and in the following days copies of the paper were tossed off the balcony of the newspaper's office and burned in effigy.
On October 16, 2006, the Daily Cal launched its first blog, The Daily Clog, a student-life blog that accumulates various tidbits about Berkeley and college life.
On August 25, 2008, the Daily Cal announced that it would not print a paper version of the newspaper on Wednesdays amidst a decline in advertising revenues and higher newspaper costs.
The Daily Californian Alumni Association
More than 400 former The Daily Californian staffers have joined The Daily Californian Alumni Association (DCAA) since its resurrection in August 1996. A unit of The Daily Californian Education Foundation, the DCAA exists to bring alumni of the newspaper together as well as to provide mentorship and financial support to the current student staff. The DCAA is one of the largest and most active alumni associations of any college newspaper. A chartered club of the California Alumni Association, the Daily Californian Alumni Association holds regular reunions and receptions across the country. Alumni are established and leading journalists in such news organizations as The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, People magazine, The Arizona Republic, The San Francisco Chronicle, Sports Illustrated, NBC News, USA Today and The Washington Post.
Membership is open to all former staff members of The Daily Californian or student publications office staff (pre 1971). Reunions are held every October during homecoming weekend on the Berkeley campus and offer a chance for alums to mingle and trade stories with students on the current staff.