The Student (newspaper)
Student is a weekly Scottish independent newspaper produced by students at the University of Edinburgh. Founded in 1887 by author Robert Louis Stevenson, it is the oldest student newspaper in the United Kingdom and currently holds the title of Best Student Newspaper in Scotland, awarded by the Herald Student Press Awards in 2006.
Student today
The newspaper is independent of the university and almost entirely independent of the students' association, which sells advertising on its behalf. This allows a higher degree of editorial independence than other student union or university-funded publications (the Edinburgh University Students' Association produces a fortnightly magazine called Hype). Many of Student's former writers have gone on to become internationally renowned journalists and politicians.
Past staff members of Student include the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown; Lord Steel; the late Robin Cook; singer Darius Danesh, and many of Fleet Street's reporters and editors. Recent graduates include Guardian staff writer and editor Helen Pidd and BBC radio reporter Chris Page.
It has a physical circulation of 8000 copies per issue and is read by some 20,000 people[citation needed] in Edinburgh.
History
Developing from Stevenson's original publication, Student quickly became a small weekly magazine, published by the Students' Representative Council. A typical, turn-of-the-century edition of Student would open with a short biography of a notable person and an editorial. The remaining content largely comprised notes from various societies, sports results, poetry and literary reviews, and profiles of newly-appointed lecturers. The magazine was supported by advertising, but cost two pence.[1]
By the 1970s, Student had become a weekly newspaper, roughly Berliner in format. The running of the newspaper was by this stage in the control of the Student Publications Board, a body independent of the university. It was during the first half of the 1970s that Gordon Brown was a news editor. The type of content had shifted to reflect the times: a typical copy would contain pages on news, the environment, society, features, politics and entertainment. By this point, the price had risen to five pence.[2]
The 1990s saw the introduction of computers to the newspaper; the offices were also moved from the Student Publications Board offices at 1 Buccleuch Place to their present location in the Pleasance, anecdotally held to be space reclaimed after the closure of a monkey-testing lab. Initially, the newspaper was laid out on Apple Macintosh computers. During this period, Darius Danesh worked - briefly - at the paper, as a restaurant critic.
The paper, now a tabloid in format, won the Herald Student Media Award for best newspaper in 1998 and again in 2006, and the Guardian Student Media Awards for 'Best Newspaper on a Shoestring' in 2001. The paper was redesigned several times in the lead-up to the millennium, eventually switching to PCs for layout, and winning the Herald Award for its design in 2004. After failing to win the same award the following year, the paper was again radically redesigned in 2006.
Controversy
Chris Brand
University lecturer Chris Brand, who had published controversial work into race and intelligence, and had castigated feminist promiscuity, single-parenting and paedohysteria, was asked to leave the university in 1997 for bringing it into "disrepute". Student had been instrumental in calling for his sacking after his book, The g Factor, was published. Finally, Brand was compensated for unfair dismissal; and Student published in 2003 a further example of his psychorealism, urging girls to 'keep their (pubic} hair on' so as to improve their romantic chances. [3]
Financial collapse
In early 2002, Student's continuous run came to an end when the newspaper faced "five-figure debts". The official explanation was that the post-September 11 climate had caused a downturn in advertising, something being widely claimed by other newspapers at the time.[4]. The newspaper was relaunched at the start of the 2002-3 academic year as a bi-weekly publication and advertising sales, which had been traditionally managed internally, began to be handled by the advertising department of the Students' Association, a system which continues today. The paper recovered quickly, returning to weekly publication with a redesign soon after the start of the next academic year.
Anti-gaelic 'bigotry'
The newspaper caused some controversy in 2004 when a television listing, apparently mocking the gaelic language, was republished around the internet, primarily through an email forwarding campaign, and a largely inaccurate Indymedia article.[5] A flurry of angry, concerned and threatening letters, largely condemning all who worked at the newspaper as English bigots, followed; that the listings in question were traditionally deliberately offensive was not taken into account, due to the out-of-context nature of the forwarded message.
In fact, the author of the listing was himself a gaelic speaker, and the staff at that time was disproportionately Scottish in comparison with the rest of the university. The president of the Students' Association and the rector of the university resolutely refused to become involved in the issue, citing Student's editorial independence; the issue eventually blew itself out.
'Page Three' feature
In early 2005, Student published an editorial discussing Page Three and nudity in the media, accompanied by two full-page, semi-naked glamour model photographs: one male, one female. The newspaper received a complaint from the university's Islamic Society (ISocEd) as a result. The local newspaper Edinburgh Evening News published a story regarding the feature, which was subsequently picked up by several national newspapers. The photograph of the female model - who was wearing underwear and a scarf covering her nipples - was reprinted alongside each of these articles.
The majority of the coverage was seen by many as wildly misleading; newspapers claimed "floods of complaints" [6] and that the female model was in hiding. Furthermore, although Catherine Harper of Scottish Women Against Pornography said that "[This] will lead students to only view women as a pair of breasts", little mention was made of the male model also published. However, The Sun defended the publication of a page similar to its own and even offered the model a place in its paper.
Again, the Students' Association and university representatives declined to comment on the feature, and the story died out.
Pure Controversy
In November 2006 Student ran a series of front pages highlighting the Christian Union's Pure course which allegedly taught that homosexuality was a "curable condition." The main complaint of Student was that the course was being taught at the Chaplaincy Centre, which is a university building. This raised concerns in regards to the university's anti-discrimination policy. What followed, was a temporary ban of the Pure course and a subsequent threats of litigation. The story became a national press fiasco, though Student was the first to break the story.
Notable former staff members
- Gordon Brown (Chancellor of the Exchequer)
- Robin Cook (Labour MP)
- James Kirkup (The Scotsman)
- Tom Kelly (Daily Mail)
- Dan Milmo (Guardian)
- Graeme Virtue (Sunday Herald)
- Tom Gordon (The Herald)
- Gordon Darroch (Press Association)
- Russell Fallis (Press Association)
- Stephen Phelan (Sunday Herald)
- Oliver Wright (The Times)
- Sam Lister (The Times)
Footnotes and references
- ^ The Student, Volume XIV (Winter 1899-1900)
- ^ The Student, November 14, 1975
- ^ IQ Researcher Suspended for Views on Paedophilia by Holden, Constance (November 22, 1996). [1]. Science.
- ^ Edinburgh Student newspaper folds by Curtis, Polly (May 24, 2002). [2]. The Guardian.
- ^ 'Student' newspaper in anti-Scots racism row (May 24, 2004). [3]. Indymedia Scotland.
- ^ Student newspaper sparks 'Page 3' row [4]. by Lessware, Jonathan (February 11, 2005). Scotsman Education.