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The Courier (Newcastle University newspaper)

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The Courier
Front page from 4 January 2019
TypeFortnightly student newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)Newcastle University Students' Union
EditorLucy Bower
Deputy editorLibby Griffiths
Founded1948
LanguageEnglish
HeadquartersNewcastle University Students Union, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne
Circulation12,000[1]
Websitethecourieronline.co.uk

The Courier is the free student weekly newspaper of Newcastle University's Students' Union. It is entirely written and edited by student volunteers, except for the chief editor, which is a paid sabbatical officer position in the students union. Articles which are included in the 40-page print edition are also published online. The newspaper is divided into sections, including current affairs (news, campus comment, opinion, science); life and style (lifestyle, fashion and beauty, relationships, food and drink, travel); culture (film, tv, music, arts, gaming); sport and puzzles.

History

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Established in 1948 as King's Courier, while Newcastle University was still incorporated within Durham University as King's College, the first issue was published on 18 November 1948.[2] Several of the paper's founders, including its first editor Stuart Shaw and business manager Allan Marsh, had previously helped to set up Palatinate, a newspaper for students at both the Newcastle and Durham divisions of the University, but poor sales in Newcastle prompted Palatinate to refocus as a Durham-only publication after just three issues.[3][4]

The paper was initially published fortnightly but became a weekly paper in 1960, when the name was shortened to The Courier. The paper expanded through the 1990s and 2000s and is currently 40 pages long. In 2003 a separate culture magazine, Pulp, was launched, which later became a pull-out of the main paper and was reintegrated completely in 2009. Since then, new sections such as lifestyle, science, gaming and travel have been launched within the paper.[5]

The Courier became a free publication in 2002, and after several short-lived websites, thecourieronline.co.uk launched in 2009, giving the paper a regular presence online.

Since 1975, the editor has been elected by a cross-campus ballot of students, with the role becoming a sabbatical position in 1992, making The Courier one of the only student newspapers with a full-time paid editor.

The current weekly readership is around 18,000, mostly students at the university. The newspaper is published on a Monday bi-weekly during term-time. The current editor-in-chief for the 24/25 academic year is Lucy Bower, working alongside the current deputy editor, Libby Griffiths.

Awards

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The Courier has won numerous awards[1] including The Guardian's Student Newspaper of the Year award in 1994, 2012 and 2013.[6] In 2008, The Courier design editor Kerry Hyndman came runner up in The Guardian's student media award for design for her work on the newspaper's entertainment pull-out, Pulp.[7] As part of a redesign of the paper in 2009–2010 Pulp, which was originally independent of The Courier, was discontinued and replaced by a lifestyle section fully integrated into the main body of the paper.

References

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  1. ^ a b "About The Courier". Newcastle University Union Society. Retrieved 1 September 2008.
  2. ^ "The future of King's". The Courier. 18 November 1948. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  3. ^ "Dynamo slant... Allan Marsh". The Courier. 9 February 1950. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  4. ^ "Editorial". Palatinate. 22 June 1948. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  5. ^ "History of the Courier". Newcastle University Special Collections. Newcastle University. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  6. ^ "Newcastle University's the Courier wins student publication of the year". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  7. ^ "On course to win". The Guardian. 29 September 2008. Retrieved 8 December 2008.
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