Columbia Daily Spectator

Type	Student newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
School	Barnard College Columbia University
Owner	Spectator Publishing Company, Inc.
Founder(s)	Frederick William Holls H.G. Paine
Founded	1877; 149 years ago (1877)
Headquarters	New York City, U.S.
Circulation	8,000[1]
Website	columbiaspectator.com
Free online archives	library.columbia.edu

TheColumbia Daily Spectator (known colloquially asSpec) is the student newspaper ofColumbia University. Founded in 1877, it is the second-oldest continuously operating college news daily in the nation afterThe Harvard Crimson, and has been legally independent from the university since 1962. It is published at120th Street andClaremont Avenue inNew York City. During the academic term, it is published online Sunday through Thursday and printed weekly. In addition to serving as a campus newspaper, theSpectator also reports the latest news of the surroundingMorningside Heights community. The paper is delivered to over 150 locations throughout the Morningside Heights neighborhood.

TheColumbia Spectator was founded in 1877 byFrederick William Holls and H.G. Paine.^[2]: 179 Also serving on the paper's first editorial board wasWilliam Barclay Parsons. Several attempts at student journalism were made before theSpectator. The first student publication formed at Columbia was the short livedPhilolexian Observer, founded in 1813.^[2]: 176 TheCap and Gown was founded in 1867 as both a student newspaper and literary publication. It was renamed to theActa Columbiana in 1873, and was absorbed by theSpectator in 1885, which also took its motto,A Studentibus Studentibusque.^[2]: 178

TheSpectator was first published as a fortnightly. In 1898 it became a weekly, and a year later began to be published semi-weekly, before finally becoming a daily paper in 1902.^{[2]: 179–180}

In April 2014,Spectator announced it would become the first Ivy League newspaper to cut its daily print for a weekly distribution to focus on digital content and increase revenue.^[3] The plan was approved shortly thereafter by the Board of Trustees, passing 7 to 4.John R. MacArthur, one of the members of the board, resigned in protest of the decision, but the paper did see the expected revenue increase.^[4]

Spectator is published by Spectator Publishing Company Inc, an independent 501(c)(3) corporation.^[5] Spectator Publishing Company was formed in 1962 and has been independent of Columbia University since then.^[6] The president of the Spectator Publishing Company also serves as the editor in chief of theColumbia Daily Spectator.

Spectator's writing departments, each headed by one or two editors, include university news, city news, sports, arts and culture, opinion, and lifestyle. The other non-writing departments, also headed by their own respective editors, include photography, illustrations, graphics, audio, video, and copy. The Business & Innovations departments, which oversee the newspaper's advertising, finances, software development, and alumni relations, are headed by the publisher.Spectator also runsThe Eye which is a magazine focused on publishing long-form feature articles and essays.

The paper is currently run by the 149th managing board. First-time writers at Columbia begin their time at the paper with a 3 to 4 month trainee semester, during which they learn the basics of writing an article and publish their first articles. Each November and December, students run for positions at the paper, a process that takes nearly a month. They begin byshadowing, or sitting with the current editors or associate editors and learning the editing process. Next they write proposals for their desired position. The students then take editing tests created by their department editor that test them on fundamentals. Finally, they complete the Turkeyshoots process with an interview. The results of the process, including the new managing board, are announced in mid-December, the weekend before finals.

In 2005,Spec started printingLa Página, a weekly flyer in Spanish with translations of some of the week's English content most relevant to neighborhood readers. It folded within the year.

The next year, in February 2006, the paper launched a series of blogs, SpecBlogs. It was the thirdIvy League paper to do this, afterThe Harvard Crimson's Sports Blog (December 2005) andThe Daily Pennsylvanian's TheBuzz (January 2006).^[7]

In September 2006,Spectator staff launchedThe Eye, a weekly magazine featuring investigative pieces and commentary on Columbia and New York City. The name ofThe Eye relates both to the fact that one "spectates" with it and urban theoristJane Jacobs' notion that "eyes on the street" help keep neighborhoods safe.

In March 2010,Spec launched a new blog, Spectrum, which is updated several times a day with breaking news, columns, and features.

In January 2018,Spec launched a branded content studio,Spectator Brand Studios. It was the secondIvy League paper to do this, after theHarvard Crimson.

In October 1995, the newspaper published an antisemitic column by a senior student.^[8][9] In the controversial column, whichThe New York Times reported on, the student wrote: "I single out Jews because their oppression of blacks cannot go unnoticed while they disguise their evilness under the skirts and costumes of the Rabbi,"^[8] A number of Jewish students called for a boycott of the newspaper.^[8]

Spectator has been criticized publicly by staff members over the years for obscuring its election procedures. On October 16, 2009, Ryan Bubinski, then the online editor ofSpec, shut down the website in protest of a constitutional violation.^[10] The website was restored on the 18th, and Bubinski left the staff of the newspaper.^[11] The lack of a constitution brought renewed protests in 2018 when concerns over potential prior misconduct of a staffer surfaced during the Turkeyshoots process. The Corporate Board ofSpectator followed an internal policy to investigate the claims, which was not made public to staffers. Following the Turkeyshoots season, the majority of the newspaper's Sports section resigned in protest.^[12]

In 2018 and 2019, work by journalists at the paper played an important role in uncovering the plagiarism scandal aroundCharles K. Armstrong, a professor of history at Columbia University.^[13] It also, in 2019, found that a number of professors accused or found guilty of sexual misconduct remained on campus, breaking news that English professor Michael Golston had been found guilty of sexually assaulting a student.^[14]

• The Fed (newspaper)
• Morningside Heights
• List of New York City newspapers and magazines

• Columbia Daily Spectator online
• "The Eye weekly magazine". Archived fromthe original on October 16, 2006. RetrievedAugust 11, 2017.
• "Spectrum blog". Archived fromthe original on November 3, 2010. RetrievedAugust 11, 2017.
• Spectator Publishing Company
• Columbia Daily Spectator archive

• Columbia University publications
• Student newspapers published in New York (state)
• Newspapers established in 1877
• 1877 establishments in New York (state)

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• Articles with dead external links from August 2017
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