Established on September 29, 1890, the newspaper is financially and editorially independent from the university. The Daily is managed by two editors-in-chief and a business manager who oversee a staff of over 500 undergraduate students. The current editors-in-chief are Samantha Rich and Dana Elobaid, who were elected in November 2023.[1]
The Michigan Daily is the only daily newspaper in Washtenaw County, Michigan[2] and has consistently been ranked among the top college newspapers in the country.[3] In 2020, the paper received nearly 6 million website visits, and serves over 50,000 university students and nearly 350,000 residents throughout Washtenaw County.[4]
Former editors and columnists of the paper include politicians, federal judges, and journalists at publications like CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, and seven Pullitzer Prize winners. The Michigan Daily was awarded the 2023 Pacemaker Award in online media, the highest award in college journalism.[5]
History
First issue of The Daily in 1890
In 1952, the Soviet delegate to the United Nations, F. A. Novikov, singled out the newspaper as emblematic of American warmongering. On April 12, 1955, when the success of Jonas Salk's polio vaccine was announced at the University of Michigan the Daily was the first newspaper to report it. In 1957, the Daily sent a staff member to Little Rock, Arkansas who, pretending to be a student, attended classes on the first day of integration.
Activist and politician Tom Hayden, a former Daily editor in chief who helped found Students for a Democratic Society while editing the Daily, came to personify the publication's editorial philosophy during the 1960s. The paper was the subject of national press coverage when, in 1967, it urged the legalization of marijuana, and again during the Gulf War in 1991, when it called for the reinstatement of the military draft.
The Daily was instrumental in the spread of the Paul is deadurban legend. An October 14, 1969 Daily article by Fred LaBour and John Gray, entitled "McCartney Dead; New Evidence Brought to Light", itemized various "clues", many of them of their own invention. Their "reporting" of McCartney's death is claimed by Beatleologist Andru J. Reeve to have been "the single most significant factor in the breadth of the rumor's spread."[6][7]
The first female editor-in-chief of TheDaily was Harriett Woods, who later served in Missouri State government, ran for the Senate twice in the 1980s nearly beating John Danforth the first time, and led the National Women's Political Caucus through its Year of the Woman in 1992.
On January 28, 2014, TheDaily earned national recognition for breaking news that a Michigan football player had been separated from the university for sexual misconduct.
Overview
The newspaper is financially and editorially independent of the university's administration and other student groups, but shares a university building with other student publications on 420 Maynard Street, north of the Michigan Union. The Daily acts as Michigan's de factojournalism school, since the university does not have a journalism program or department.
The Daily operates 16 different sections and departments: Arts, Audience Engagements, Business, Copy, Culture, Training & Inclusion, Design, Games, Michigan in Color, News, Opinion, Photo, Podcast, Sports, The Statement, Video, and Web. News is the largest section, with seven sections that include Academics and Student Government, Administration, Business and Public Safety, Campus Life, City, Government, and Research.
In 2007, renovations to the historic building at 420 Maynard were completed, funded entirely by private donations from alumni. To dedicate the renovated building, a reunion of the staffs of The Michigan Daily, the Michiganensian yearbook, and the GargoyleHumor Magazine was held on October 26–28, 2007.
The Michigan Daily is published weekly in broadsheet form during the fall and winter semesters and in tabloid form from May to August. Broadsheets contain a lengthy SportsWednesday Sports section and occasionally an extended, themed issue called The B-Side from the Arts section. They also include a magazine, originally titled Weekend Magazine. In the fall of 2005, the magazine was renamed The Statement, a reference to former editor-in-chief Tom Hayden's Port Huron Statement. School year circulation is 7,500 copies per day. It has over 230,000 unique visitors per month to its website.[citation needed]
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