 | This image is of the first copy of The Yale Daily News, published Jan. 28, 1878. Its editors noted on the page that "The News is to be published for a few weeks as an experiment. If it meets with success, it will be continued through the year." They went on to say that the 5-cent per issue price was ³perhaps too exhorbitant.² |
When two Yale students founded the Yale Daily News (YDN) in 1878, they described the new college newspaper as "an innovation ... justified by the dullness of the times, and by demand for news among us."
However "dull" their time may have seemed to the two innovators, the YDN itself has had a long and colorful history. The "Oldest College Daily," as the newspaper is known, will celebrate its 125th birthday with a weekend of events April 4-6.
The celebration will bring together current staff with hundreds of alumni who filled some of their Yale time working for the newspaper. Some of these former YDN staffers will participate in a series of panel discussions which are free and open to the public. An anniversary exhibit at Sterling Memorial Library will feature photographs, artifacts and never-before-seen relics of the YDN's 125-year history, including the first issue of the "Yale News" ever produced.
The public panels will be held on Saturday, April 5. These sessions will cover such topics as international journalism, the future of the First Amendment, how the merging of corporations and consolidation threatens American journalism, journalistic values in American newsrooms, op-eds and blogs, and journalism in books and film.
Three panels will be held concurrently at 10:30 a.m. Following these, at 1:30 p.m., there will be a plenary session on the topic "The Media and American Politics." This event will feature YDN alumni Gaddis Smith '54, '58 M.A., '61 Ph.D., the Larned Professor Emeritus of History; Dana Milbank '90, the White House correspondent for the Washington Post; David Gergen '63, a former adviser to three U.S. presidents and the editor-at- large for U.S. News and World Report; Lanny Davis '67, also a former White House adviser; Robert Semple '59, a member of the editorial board of The New York Times; and MG Lord '77, author of "Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of the Living Doll." President Richard C. Levin will offer opening remarks at this session.
Later in the afternoon, at 3:30 p.m., there will be three more concurrent panel discussions. For specific titles and locations for the panels, check the Yale Daily News website at
www.yaledailynews.com.
Other panelists for Saturday's program include Gary Trudeau '70, '73 M.F.A., the cartoonist of "Doonesbury"; Samantha Power '92, author of the 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award for "A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide"; Lloyd Grove '76, a columnist for The Washington Post; Paul Steiger '64, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal; James Ottaway '60, owner of Ottaway Newspapers; Reed Hundt '69, '74 LAW, former chair of the Federal Communications Commission, and others.
A gala banquet will be held for the nearly 1,000 alumni expected to return to campus for the anniversary celebration.
The Yale Daily News anniversary exhibit will be in the center nave of Sterling Library from April 1 through June 30. Library hours are Monday-Thursday, 8:30 a.m.-midnight; Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 p.m.-midnight.
While other colleges started newspapers prior to 1878, the Yale News was the first college daily. The early issues were 6 by 9 inches and sold for five cents.
Since then, the YDN has covered campus and national events, on occasion itself making history: It was the first newspaper, for example, to interview a survivor of the Hindenberg explosion. Since 1932, the YDN has operated out of a building at 202 York St. Many YDN alumni have gone on to prominent positions in journalism, law, the arts, business and more. These include Henry Luce and Britton Hadden, who together began Time magazine and are known as "the fathers of modern journalism"; writer and commentator William F. Buckley; U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman; and former Yale president Kingman Brewster.
Today, the full-sized newspaper is distributed for free throughout the campus (paid subscriptions are available). Its staff is made up of Yale undergraduate and graduate students. Students without experience are invited to join the YDN; they learn the journalistic ropes by "heeling" (following, observing and assisting) a more experienced member of the staff -- a tradition that dates back to the newspaper's earliest years. The paper is financially independent of the University.
In addition to publishing the daily newspaper, the YDN also publishes "The Insider's Guide to the Colleges," "The Yale Daily News Guide to Internships," "The Yale Daily News Guide to Fellowships and Grants," and "Working Knowledge." The Yale Daily News Publishing Company also produces the Yale Daily News Magazine, the Yale Daily News Review and the Yale Daily News Online. It also publishes a number of special-occasion issues every year. For further information, visit the YDN website at www.yaledailynews.com.
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