State Press
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 The State Press front page from April 15, 2009 |
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| Type | Student newspaper |
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| Format | Compact |
| Owner | Arizona State University Student Media |
| Editor | Leigh Munsil |
| Founded | 1906 |
| Headquarters | Matthews Center, Arizona State University Tempe, AZ 85281 United States |
| Circulation | 13,500 Daily |
| Official website | StatePress.com |
The State Press is the independent, student-operated newspaper of Arizona State University. It publishes a free newspaper every weekday.
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[edit] History
The history of The State Press goes back to ASU's establishment as a "Normal School" during Arizona's territorial period. The university's first student newspaper, The Normal Echo, made its debut on October 18, 1890. Back then, it was a one-page supplement to the local newspaper now called the East Valley Tribune.
The existence of The State Press as an independent entity began in 1906, when it became the Tempe Normal Student, a four-page tabloid distributed on campus each Friday for five cents per copy. The paper changed its name to Tempe Collegian in 1925 when the school's name changed to Tempe College in the same year. The name was eventually shortened to the Collegian in 1930 and fell under the control of the newly created Faculty of Journalism two years later.
The newspaper was renamed the Arizona State Press in 1936, and the name was shortened to State Press the next year. (The word "The" was added to the masthead in the early 2000s.)
In the 1970s, The State Press regained its independence from what is now the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Initially, the president of ASU at the time, John Schwada, placed the paper under the authority of a Board of Student Media. The first board resigned within a month because of a disagreement with the Arizona Board of Regents regarding its role in the newspaper's affairs. The department is now under the Office of Vice President for University Student Initiatives and maintains a significant amount of independence from the school; although ASU provides equipment and offices on campus, The State Press pays production costs and salaries through advertising revenue. Decisions on editorial content are left to the paper's editorial board; the full-time director of ASU Student Media plays a purely advisory role.
On September 10, 1984, the paper added a Monday edition and began to operate as a five-days-a-week daily publication.
In 2008, the newspaper opened a second newsroom on ASU's Downtown Phoenix campus, in the newly constructed Cronkite/Eight Building. Many reporters and a handful of editors work from the downtown newsroom, while the balance of the newsroom staff — as well as the advertising, production and administrative staffs — work from ASU Student Media's headquarters in Matthews Center on the Tempe campus.
[edit] Alumni
The paper's most famous ex-employee is former Monday Night Football sportscaster and ASU alumnus Al Michaels, who covered football and basketball as the paper's assistant sports editor in the fall of 1963 and became sports editor in 1964. Michaels is rumored to have been fired for reasons unknown.
Cartoonist Tony Carrillo began drawing his F Minus comic strip for The State Press while he was a student at ASU. The single-panel comic initially ran in The State Press for four semesters and is now syndicated, appearing in more than 100 newspapers — including The State Press. Carrillo also painted the city skyline mural in the underground window well in The State Press' Tempe newsroom.[1]
Other notable State Pressers include:
- Jerry Dumas, a comic strip writer and artist
- Philip Haldiman, who appeared in the 2003 film The Room before enrolling at ASU and joining The State Press staff
- Kris Mayes, the chair of the Arizona Corporation Commission
- Len Munsil, who ran for governor of Arizona in 2006
- Joe Watson, the so-called salon bandit[2]
[edit] Layout
The State Press publishes newspapers every school day (Monday through Friday) and features student articles, world and national wire reports, editorials, opinions and comics, both student-drawn and syndicated.
On Tuesdays, a campus-specific front page had been produced and printed on the 500 copies of the newspaper delivered to ASU's West campus. A similar campus-specific edition was produced for the Polytechnic campus on Thursdays. Both zoned editions were launched in the fall of 2008 but suspended in February 2009 due to both the cost of the endeavor and uncertainty about the future of both outlying campuses in light of state budget cuts.
A separate staff produces State Press Magazine, which had been printed on the backside of the daily newspaper until August 2007, when it became a separate publication. The last printed issue of SPM was published March 18, 2009, but the magazine continues to publish online, examining university issues such as current events, arts and entertainment.
The paper's staff uses Macintosh computers. Stories are written in Microsoft Word, and pages are laid out in Adobe InDesign.
From the late 1990s through May 2009, the online edition of the newspaper was the ASU Web Devil, which served as a portal to all Student Media Web sites. By June 2009, the other Student Media properties — Sun Devil Television and State Press Magazine — had launched their own Web sites hosted separately from the Web Devil, so the site was rebranded as StatePress.com, returning to the URL used for the site in the 1990s.
In addition, a spoof edition of the daily paper, The Stale Mess, is published at the end of each semester by the State Press Magazine staff.
[edit] Clashes with administration
In 2003, a memorable Stale Mess spoof cover featured a simulated photo of ASU President Michael Crow passed out in a bathtub, with vomit on his shirt and a bottle of cheap vodka cradled on his arm. Crow later complained about the photo to The State Press editorial board.
In spring 2004, an article about alleged mistreatment of employees at ASU's Department of Residential Life was criticized as one-sided by the department.
State Press Magazine created a stir in fall 2004 by publishing a full-page cover photo of a woman's naked, pierced breast on its cover; the publication drew criticism from prominent conservatives and ASU boosters such as Ira Fulton, who felt the university's administration needed to have more oversight regarding editorial decisions.
The incident may have led to the actions alleged in a November 2004 Phoenix New Times article, "Quid Pro Crow: ASU's president puts the squeeze on freedom of speech to please his biggest donor." The article drew national attention and was featured on several media news Web sites.
The paper also won an award for the way it handled pressure from the administration concerning content in the wake of the SPM controversy.
[edit] Organization
The State Press operates under a departmental umbrella of ASU Student Media, which also features a TV station (Sun Devil Television) and a magazine (State Press Magazine). Student Media organizations operate from the basement of Matthews Center at ASU's Tempe campus and a newsroom in the Cronkite building at ASU's Downtown Phoenix campus that was opened in fall 2008. A student radio station (KASC) runs independently of Student Media through the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication but is affiliated with ASU Student Media by name.
[edit] References
- ^ Carrillo, Tony (March 16, 2009). "Go Devils!". Spread the F Word (F Minus blog). http://www.spreadthefword.com/2009/03/go-devils.html. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
- ^ Lemons, Stephen (April 2, 2007). "Joe Watson, the Salon Bandit?". Phoenix New Times. http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2007/04/joe_watson_in_custody.php.
[edit] External links
- StatePress.com http://www.statepress.com/
- ASU Student Media http://www.asu.edu/studentmedia/
- State Press Magazine http://statepressmagazine.com/
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