Founded 1933 | Editor Troi Charity | |
Type Weekly student newspaper Publisher Georgia State Student Publications | ||
The Signal is the official student newspaper of Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. As of 2013, The Signal has a weekly circulation of 5,000, distributed to numerous locations on the Georgia State campus and a handful of locations in the surrounding area. The paper publishes on Tuesdays during Spring and Fall semesters (in addition to an "Incept" issue for incoming students in the Summer). It primarily covers news, events and issues specific to the Georgia State community and covers stories relating to the city of Atlanta with interest to its readers.
Contents
History
Like the university, the student newspaper of what is now Georgia State University has evolved with each incarnation of the school. Georgia State's first student newspaper, The Technite, was named in homage to the Georgia Institute of Technology's own student paper, The Technique, when the school was founded as the Georgia School of Technology's Evening School of Commerce. In 1933, as the University changed to become the Atlanta Extension Center of the University System of Georgia, the two divisions of the school (the day division and the night division) each produced their own separate newspapers (named The Junior Collegiate and the Evening Signal, respectively). On two occasions the publications would appear in combination with one another, initially as the Collegiate-Signal on April 21, 1941, and again as the University Signal on September 22, 1941. It wasn't until the Evening Signal merged with the day division newspaper, The Junior-Collegiate, permanently in 1943 that the formal name of the publication would become The Signal. Since that time, a number of mastheads have been used, including The University Signal, The Georgia State Signal, the Georgia State College Signal, and the Georgia State University Signal.
During his time at Georgia State, D.W. Pine, Design Director of Time magazine was editor-in-chief of The Signal.
Present-day publication
The Signal is published every Tuesday during the Fall and Spring semesters, with the exceptions of Finals Week, Spring Break and Thanksgiving Break. It also prints a special summer issue for incoming freshman and transfer students, known as the "Incept Issue" and publishes daily online throughout the year.
The newspaper is operated by a staff of approximately 50 paid and unpaid students, broken into the editorial, marketing and advertising departments, respectively. Although Georgia State offers degrees in journalism, The Signal welcomes all students within the university to contribute to its content. It is funded primarily by print advertisements, printing costs are paid for by student fees. It runs its website, georgiastatesignal.com, independently from the school. The georgiastatesignal.com URL was launched in 2012 (after over a decade of the paper publishing at gsusignal.com through the College Publisher system).
Sections
The Signal is generally between 20 and 24 pages long and organized into four sections:
Awards
The Signal has won numerous awards, including;