Type Weekly newspaper Founded 1878 Website www.theexonian.com | Format Broadsheet Headquarters Exeter, New Hampshire | |
The Exonian, the oldest preparatory school paper in America, is published weekly by its student board at Phillips Exeter Academy. Over half the student body, as well as many parents and alumni/ae, hold subscriptions to the paper, which acts as a forum for the ideas of the Exeter community and prints extensive news, opinion, sports, and feature articles, such as faculty member profiles. In 2011, the newspaper became available to all students free of cost. The current Editor-in-Chief is Emily Pelliccia.
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Early history
The paper was begun as a weekly in 1878, when three Exeter students, two of whom were roommates in Abbot Hall, decided to publish a newspaper for the Academy. The first issue appeared on Saturday, April 6, of that year. It is currently available online (see External Links).
Notable alumni
Over its 130-year history, The Exonian has had a number of student contributors who went on to become authors and journalists. The list includes historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (class of 1933); playwright and screenwriter Donald Ogden Stewart (class of 1912); a number of staff writers for The New Yorker magazine, including essayist Dwight Macdonald (class of 1924), jazz critic Whitney Balliett (class of 1945), and George Trow (class of 1961); and writers Gore Vidal (class of 1943); George Plimpton (class of 1944); Alex Beam and Joyce Maynard (class of 1971); Ned Lamont and Nelson Graves (class of 1972); and David Folkenflik (class of 1987). The ranks of former Exonian contributors also include editors at Time, Forbes, and Foreign Affairs magazines, as well as reporters at The Wall Street Journal, The Black River Tribune, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Time and many other newspapers and magazines.
Appearances in popular culture
The newspaper The Grave at the fictional Gravesend Academy from A Prayer for Owen Meany is based on The Exonian.