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 October 7, 2005 front page | |
| Type | Student newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner(s) | The Cavalier Daily, Inc. |
| Editor-in-chief | Naima Sawaya |
| Founded | January 15, 1890 |
| Headquarters | Charlottesville, Virginia |
| Circulation | 7,500 |
| Website | cavalierdaily.com |
The Cavalier Daily is an independent, student-run daily news organization at theUniversity of Virginia. Founded in 1890, under the nameCollege Topics,The Cavalier Daily is Virginia's oldestcollegiate daily and the oldest daily newspaper inCharlottesville, Virginia.
Since the summer of 1996,The Cavalier Daily has been the only daily newspaper at the University, with a print circulation of 7,500 distributed on Grounds and in the surrounding Charlottesville area.The Cavalier Daily also publishes content online and on social media daily with expanded and enhanced content.
The Cavalier Daily printed its first issue under the nameCollege Topics on January 15, 1890. In 1924, the newspaper increased its publication schedule from twice a week to six times a week, making the paper a daily. However, the following year, the paper's off-campus printer suffered a catastrophic fire, and the newspaper alternated between two and three publication days a week until 1940.
DuringWorld War IICollege Topics struggled for survival as theUniversity of Virginia student population was greatly reduced due to the war effort. By 1943, the paper had become a four-page weekly that featured only bulletins. After the war, the paper increased its circulation and content, and was renamedThe Cavalier Daily on May 4, 1948.
The admission of women and African-American students to the University of Virginia beginning in the early 1970s changed the face of the paper as well as the university community. The increased diversity of the community challenged what is often characterized as the preexisting "good old boy" attitude at both the school andThe Cavalier Daily, resulting in a staff that became more motivated and ambitious. The first woman member of the Managing Board, Mary Love, was elected business manager in 1973, and the first womaneditor-in-chief, Marjorie Leedy, followed in 1976. During this time, Managing Board races became highly competitive, and the paper adopted more professional journalistic standards. In 1973, a staff split resulted in several unsuccessful candidates for the Managing Board leaving to formThe Declaration, a weekly tabloid-format publication that continues to publish. In 1976,The Cavalier Daily became the first college publication to receive aRobert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.
The University's Media Board, a body composed of students and supervised by the University's Board of Visitors, was founded in 1976 to regulate on-Grounds media, butThe Cavalier Daily ignored it as a matter of practice. In April 1979, the confrontation came to a head when University PresidentFrank Hereford presented the paper with the ultimatum of accepting the Media Board and the Board of Visitors' authority or being forced to leave its offices. The newspaper refused to acknowledge administrative supervision, andThe Cavalier Daily was evicted from its offices on April 4, 1979, continuing to publish from rented space in the offices ofCharlottesville'sDaily Progress.
On April 5, a student protest of the eviction, including a 1,500-student demonstration in front of Hereford's office onthe Lawn and condemnation from Student Council, encouraged both sides to end the impasse, and the newspaper agreed to a compromise on April 6.The Cavalier Daily's movement toward complete independence emerged from the Media Board crisis.
The fallout of the Media Board crisis led to the 1983 formation of the Cavalier Daily Alumni Association, with the stated purpose to support the newspaper and aid it in times of need.
In 1979, the University saw the creation of another student-run newspaper, theUniversity Journal, which originally formed in opposition to what many saw as the left-wing editorial stances ofThe Cavalier Daily. An intense rivalry between the two newspapers for news and advertising grew as theUniversity Journal published three times weekly in the 1980s and then four times weekly beginning in 1991. Amid significant debt, theUniversity Journal cut back production starting in 1996 and ceased to exist by 1998. Since that time,The Cavalier Daily has been one of two physical newspapers at the University of Virginia, alongsideThe Declaration, a bi-weekly tabloid-format newsmagazine.
In 1995,The Cavalier Daily Online Edition was launched, and in 1998,The Cavalier Daily began to pay rent for its offices in Newcomb Hall, the last step in the path toward complete independence from the University that began in earlier decades. The Digitization Project, completed in 2001, made all aspects of production computer-based. In May 2020,The Cavalier Daily launched a redesigned website.
In the media firestorm surrounding the forced resignation of Teresa Sullivan, the University of Virginia president,The Cavalier Daily obtained a series of emails using the Freedom of Information Act that shone a light on the actions of the University's Board of Visitors.
In 2006 and 2007,TheCavalier Daily comics section came under fire for controversial cartoons. In August 2006, the comics were considered insensitive toChristians, involving theVirgin Mary andJesus. The controversy received national attention[1] and was featured onBill O'Reilly'sThe O'Reilly Factor. In September 2007, the same cartoonist caused outcry with a comic entitled "Ethiopian Food Fight", which portrayed malnourished ethnic Ethiopians fighting each other with various objects including boots, twigs, pillows and chairs. The ambiguity of the term "food fight" carried over to the cartoon itself, creating controversy over whether ita) caricatured victims of the Ethiopian famine as being forced to eat non-food items, which they then would throw at each other in a "food fight" in the usual sense, or insteadb) depicted Ethiopians so impoverished that they could afford neither food nor weapons, such that they were forced to improvise weapons to use in their fight over scarce food resources, a type of dispute to which news sources including CNN and theWashington Post have applied the term "food fight".[2] Some readers from each respective side joined in claiming that the artist's characterization of the disputantsdehumanized Ethiopians, as did some readers who were not sure which meaning was intended but found either alternative objectionable. The controversy led the managing board of the paper to fire the artist despite a lack of clear justification concerning editorial oversight and ultimate responsibility for publication of the controversial comic;[3] the artist was also the senior graphics editor at the time, a position subordinate to all members of the managing board. Four other comic artists, including another graphics editor, voluntarily resigned from the paper, prompting an unprecedented mid-year replacement of comics staff. A complete comics strike was staged during a week of attempted negotiations, but the managing board covered up the strike by rerunning strips. The episode earned the 2007 managing board of the paper a Jefferson Muzzle award from theThomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.[4]
In 2008, two strips of the comic TCB were withdrawn following outcry from campus and alumni Christians as well as Catholic League presidentBill Donohue. Donohue mistakenly suggested a double standard on the part ofTheCavalier Daily, as evidenced by the comic strip Luftwaffle's cartoon featuring a censoredMuhammad. He took this as an acknowledgment "that any and all depictions of the Muslim prophet Muhammed are banned."[5] In fact, Luftwaffle was satirizing attitudes towards censorship. This is evidenced by their submission of a strip introducing the Prophet's twin brother (whose image, according to the strip's creators, is allowed to be displayed) for comedic effect. The strip was not allowed to run, prompting the authors to submitnon sequitur jokes for the next two weeks.
The Cavalier Daily, until January 2012, went to press five issues per week in the fall and spring semesters. Starting in January 2012, the newspaper cut its Friday edition. Starting in August 2013,The Cavalier Daily replaced its daily newspaper with a revamped biweekly newsmagazine and expanded online and mobile content offerings. New digital offerings included mobile and tablet apps, a daily e-newsletter, high-quality multimedia content and an increased emphasis on social media and web graphics.[6] In 2017,The Cavalier Daily launchedabCD magazine as a way to share longer-form stories through words and creative visuals. In 2019,The Cavalier Daily created On Record, a weekly podcast available onSpotify andApple Podcasts. In 2020, as theCOVID-19 pandemic forced students off Grounds for the first time in University history,The Cavalier Daily launched a redesigned website with easier access to articles and video content. The new website helped transitionThe Cavalier Daily into a digital-first news organization, with print editions coming out once every other week instead of weekly.
Print distribution is 7,500 copies across the University Grounds and Charlottesville. Starting in August 2015,The Cavalier Daily began printing at Narrow Passage Press inEdinburg, Virginia. Previously, the newspaper was printed at the press of theCulpeper Star-Exponent inCulpeper, Virginia.
In an average year, the newspaper's staff exceeds 400 students, who are all volunteers. The paper's editors include five members of the Managing Board, several copy editors, online managers and editors, and over two dozen section editors, all elected by the staff each January.
The student journalists are solely responsible for all content under the direction of the student editor-in-chief.[7]
The Cavalier Daily has been recognized as one of the best college newspapers in the country. In 2020, it was named the third best public college newspaper byThe Princeton Review.[8] By 2024, it had dropped to 25th on the same rankings list.[9]
In recent years,The Cavalier Daily has won dozens ofVirginia Press Association awards for its news, opinion, feature and critical content, as well as design, in a competition that places the paper in competition with professional daily newspapers across the state.[10]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Statement by Catholic League president Bill DonohueLocated in:Charlottesville, Virginia | |||||||||||||||||||
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