UCL Pi Media
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Pi is a student magazine of the University College London Union.
History
The publication was originally launched as a newspaper. In the aftermath of World War II, there was strong popular support amongst college and UCL Union officials for some sort of community project that would bind together the rapidly expanding campus. Pi was conceived as a fortnightly news-sheet, written and published internally by UCL students. It was first published in 1947.
The paper was extremely popular, even charging a small fee for each issue. Though the initial focus was on student politics, as the paper recruited a more diverse base of writers and journalists, new areas began to receive attention - sports became a prominently featured section, as well as academic discourse and regular interviews with London celebrities. Pi drew favourable comparisons with other heavyweight student newspapers, such as The Oxford Student and the LSE Beaver. British journalist and TV personality Jonathan Dimbleby was once the editor.
Today
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A typical issue of Pi Magazine contains a wide variety of sections of supposed interest to UCL students, such as special features, an opinion section covering current student and general issues, and other sections such as arts, music and fashion.
Alongside the magazine, Pi Squared was launched in October 2006 as a sister publication in newspaper form. Its second issue made it well-read around the university with an article describing toilets in the main building of UCL as a 'cruising zone' for men looking for sex with students.
Both publications are distrubited around the UCL campus, including UCL Union bars, departmental common rooms and libraries.
Editorial structure
The magazine and newspaper are published separately by the society and have separate editorial structures.
The newspaper has the following editorial structure (as of December 2008):
Editors: Grace Barnett & Elishka Flint
News Editor: Michael Wilkinson
The magazine has the following editorial structure (as of December 2008):
Editors: Simon Friend & Melanie Gouby
Editorial positions are elected to once a year at the Annual General Meeting.
