The Daily Californian Explained

The Daily Californian
Type:	Student newspaper
Format:	Broadsheet
Owners:	Independent Berkeley Students Publishing Company, Inc.
Foundation:	1871
General Manager:	Allen Matthews -->
Chiefeditor:	Kavya Gupta
Maneditor:	Aarthi Muthukumar
Maneditor-Design:	Anna Armstrong
Staff:	401
Language:	English
Circulation:	10,000 (M/Tu/Th/F)
Headquarters:	2483 Hearst Avenue Berkeley, California, U.S.
Issn:	1050-2300

The Daily Californian (Daily Cal) is an independent, student-run newspaper that serves the University of California, Berkeley, campus and its surrounding community. It formerly published a print edition four days a week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday during the academic year, and twice a week during the summer. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in California, however, The Daily Californian has been publishing a print newspaper once a week on Thursdays.^[1]

History

20th century

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.^[2] The paper licenses its name from the Regents of the University of California.^{[3] [4] [5]}

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."^[6] 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.^[7] Nearly 23,000 papers were stolen on Election Day 1996,^[8] and in the following days, copies of the paper were tossed off the balcony of the newspaper's office and burned in effigy.^[9]

As a way to repair relations with campus community members angered by the publication of the editorial endorsing Proposition 209, editors at the Daily Cal established the nation's first regular college newspaper sex column. The column, now known colloquially as "Sex on Tuesday", led to college papers across the country to create similar sex columns.^[10]

21st century

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.^[11]

On August 25, 2008, the Daily Cal announced that it would no longer print a paper version of the newspaper on Wednesdays amidst a decline in advertising revenues and higher newspaper costs.^[12]

The Daily Californian Alumni Association

Many former Daily Cal staffers have joined The Daily Californian Alumni Association (DCAA) since its resurrection in August 1996.^[13] A unit of The Daily Californian Education Foundation, the DCAA provides mentorship and financial support to the current student staff.

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.

Notable alumni

• Adam Rapoport (1992), former editor-in-chief, Bon Appétit^[14]
• Max Boot (1992), conservative columnist and author
• Darrin Bell (1993), Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist, Washington Post Writers Group and King Features
• David Brock (1983), founder, Media Matters for America
• Warrington Colescott (1941–42), painter and printmaker
• John R. Emshwiller (1972), senior national correspondent, The Wall Street Journal
• Ron Fimrite (1949), humorist, historian, author, and sportswriter, Sports Illustrated^[15]
• Marguerite Higgins (1941), Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent
• Karl Kasten (1938), abstract expressionist artist
• David Lazarus (1983), business and consumer columnist, Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle^[16]
• T. Christian Miller (1992), Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, author, and war correspondent, ProPublica^[17]
• Johnathan A. Rodgers (1967), CEO and president, TV One, former president, Discovery Networks, and reporter, Sports Illustrated and Newsweek^{[18] [19]}
• Michael Silver (1988), columnist, NFL.com and Sports Illustrated, where he authored the magazine's Super Bowl game story for 12 straight years from 1994 through 2006, and co-author of books by Jerry Rice, Dennis Rodman, Kurt Warner, and Natalie Coughlin^{[20] [21]}
• Henry T. Weinstein (1966), reporter, Los Angeles Times^[22]
• Jann Wenner (1966), founder, Rolling Stone magazine

See also

• List of college newspapers
• Berkeley Political Review

External links

• • Official channel on YouTube

Notes and References

1. Web site: The Daily Californian. dailycalifornian.ca.newsmemory.com.
2. Web site: 2012-04-06 . The Daily Cal: Berkeley's student paper at a tipping point . 2017-01-26 . Berkeleyside.
3. Web site: Display Advertising. https://web.archive.org/web/20060821082440/http://www.dailycal.org/advertising.php. August 21, 2006. August 21, 2006. The Daily Californian.
4. Web site: Daily Cal bids farewell to Eshleman, moves to new office on Northside. Adelyn. Baxter. August 2, 2012. The Daily Californian.
5. Web site: Daily Cal Budget Woes Force Production Cuts. The Daily Californian. Julia. Szinai. August 26, 2008. October 16, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151016234726/https://archive.dailycal.org/article.php?id=102315.
6. Web site: The Daily Californian: NCAA awards Big Game to Stanford . Bill. Kuns . Stanford.edu . 2013-12-06. November 24, 1982.
7. News: Jim Herron. Zamora. Daily Cal's 23,000 copies disappear after angry call. San Francisco Examiner. November 6, 1996.
8. News: Elaine. Herscher. Daily Cal Stolen Off Racks – Prop. 209 Cited. San Francisco Chronicle. November 6, 1996.
9. News: https://web.archive.org/web/20060327164750/http://www.dailycal.org/article.php?id=10530. March 27, 2006. Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates to Plead Guilty to Theft. Paul. Thornton. December 12, 2002. The Daily Californian.
10. Book: Zimmerman, Jonathan. Campus Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know. 2016-08-08. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-062742-3. 59. en.
11. Web site: The Daily Clog. The Daily Californian. December 3, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20061203022832/http://clog.dailycal.org/.
12. Web site: Daily Cal in Financial Trouble . The Berkeley Daily Planet . August 28, 2008. Riya. Bhattacharjee. 2013-12-06.
13. Web site: The Daily Californian. dailycal.org.
14. News: Flynn. Kerry. June 9, 2020. Bon Appétit editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport resigns after brown face photo sparks anger. CNN. live. June 19, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200619080502/https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/08/media/bon-appetit-adam-rapoport-resigns/index.html. June 19, 2020.
15. Web site: Alums to Honor Ron Fimrite. The Daily Californian. August 27, 2008. 2013-12-06. July 21, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110721122740/http://alumni.dailycal.org/article/3/alums_to_honor_ron_fimrite. Wendy. Lee.
16. Web site: Lazarus, Schacht Honored as Alumni of the Year. The Daily Californian . November 12, 2009 . 2013-12-06. January 27, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100127142627/http://alumni.dailycal.org/article/20/lazarus_schacht_honored_as_alumni_of_the_year. Wendy. Lee.
17. News: 2 Daily Californian alumni, Berkeley resident win Pulitzer Prizes. Platten. Andrea. 2016-04-18. The Daily Californian. 2016-04-26.
18. Web site: TV One. https://web.archive.org/web/20090411045753/http://www.tvoneonline.com/inside_tvone/bio_johnathan_rodgers.asp. dead. April 11, 2009. TV One.
19. Web site: The Daily Californian : Paper Gave Honoree 'A Career I Still Love' . https://web.archive.org/web/20060828222638/http://alumni.dailycal.org/newsletter/winter2005.pdf . 2006-08-28 . Karlyn Barker . 2013-12-06.
20. Web site: Michael Silver | Yahoo Author Profile . Sports.yahoo.com . 2011-04-20 . 2013-12-06.
21. Michael Silver's Rollin' With – Writer Archive . Sports Illustrated . 2013-12-06.
22. Web site: Times writer wins honor . Los Angeles Times . 2006-11-13 . 2013-12-06.