The Muse, successor to the Memorial Times, began publishing in 1950 in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, as an unnamed paper. That paper held a contest to choose a new name, the winner being a professor who named the paper after all of the following:
Beginning with a small editorial staff controlled by the student union, The Muse grew into an autonomous student-run paper. In the early years of publication, it was a campus gossip tabloid; in the late 1960s it developed an activist flair which attracted the attention of the provincial government and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), with the latter including The Muse in their investigations of supposedly Marxist organizations. In the late eighties, the paper was enlivened by the women's movement, and followed a more activist agenda, including special coverage of gay, lesbian and bisexual issues not discussed in the mainstream media, and a boycotted list of advertisers. The Muse incorporated in 2002 as The Muse Publications Inc, and became fully autonomous from the Memorial University students' union in January 2003.
The Muse focuses on campus life, Newfoundland and Labrador, university research, campus, municipal, provincial and federal politics, local music and sports, and periodically reports on world politics and social justice.
During the fall and winter semesters The Muse distributes 12,000 copies a week to various parts of multiple campuses, and throughout St. John's. Circulation ceases during the summer months.
The Muse is a member of Canadian University Press (CUP), a non-profit co-operative and newswire service owned by about 70 student newspapers at post-secondary schools in Canada.
In January 2004, the Muse hosted the Canadian University Press national conference (CUP 66) for the first time in the paper's history. The conference was awarded to The Muse over the Gateway (newspaper) of the University of Alberta at the Montreal CUP conference in 2003 (CUP 65). The conference was held at the Fairmont Newfoundland Hotel.
Many writers with The Muse have gone on to successful careers - not only in journalism, but in arts, business, music, law and politics.
At CUP 71, held in Saskatoon during January 2009, the Muse officially became the sister paper of the Fulcrum at the University of Ottawa.