The Brown Daily Herald

''The Brown Daily Herald'' is the student newspaper of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Established in 1866 and published daily since 1891, The ''Herald'' is the second-oldest student newspaper among America's college dailies. It is financially and editorially independent of the University, and publishes Monday through Friday during the academic year with additional issues during commencement, summer and orientation.''The Brown Daily Herald'' Online—About the ''Herald''
/ref> The ''Herald'' is managed by a board of trustees comprising two editorial staffers, two business staffers and five ''Herald'' alumni. Many alumni of ''The Brown Daily Herald'' have gone on to careers in journalism, and several have won Pulitzer Prizes.

History

Early years

The ''Herald'' first appeared on Wednesday, December 2, 1891. The first issue was printed during the night and copies were distributed to each door in the dormitories with no preliminary announcement. The secret planning for the paper was actually begun about a month earlier by Ted Baylies (Class of 1895) and George Hunter (Class of 1895), who, as readers of ''The Harvard Crimson'' and '' The Yale Daily News'', were convinced that they could put out a daily newspaper at Brown.

They enlisted the help of John (Class of 1893) and Edward Casey (Class of 1893), who were putting themselves through college in their printing shop at the foot of College Hill. Baylies and Steve Hopkins (Class of 1893) rounded up advertising for the whole year to insure the financial soundness of their proposed venture. Ben Johnson (Class of 1893), H. Anthony Dyer (Class of 1894), and Guy A. Andrews (Class of 1895) were also named to the board of editors. The approval of 8th University President Elisha Benjamin Andrews and other faculty members was obtained before the first issue appeared.

The four-page paper was printed at the Casey shop on a single- cylinder press operated by a wheel, mostly by the labor of the editors after they discovered that the tramp printer they had hired was given to drinking. The price of the paper was two cents a copy or $1.50 per year. The ''Herald'' received a cool reception from the ''Brunonian'', which in 1890 had welcomed the ''Brown Magazine'' as a new literary publication and devoted its own pages to news, but had rejected the idea of daily publication. A Brunonian editorial criticized the appearance of the ''Herald'', and stated:

The ''Herald'' survived and even began to have a social life, holding its first banquet at the Crown Hotel in 1903, and playing the first of a long series of annual baseball games against the ''Brunonian'' in 1907. As a supporter of Charles Evans Hughes 1881 for president in 1916, the ''Herald'' happily and in large print proclaimed his victory on November 8, 1916 before learning that he had actually lost the election.

World War I

The ''Herald'' dropped the word "Daily" in May 1917 when publication was limited to three days a week. In the fall of 1918 the paper became a semi-weekly. On February 1, 1919, daily publication was resumed. During the war, letters from alumni in the service were featured.

1920s

After the war, the paper turned its attention to other matters, printing a green issue for St. Patrick's Day in 1920, and on January 20, 1921, an editorial on the immoral behavior of Brown students and their dates, the "social buds", who came to Brown dances and checked their corsets with the hat-check attendant. The editorial provoked replies and received a whole page of coverage in the ''Boston American''. ''The Literary Supplement of the Brown Daily Herald'', a twelve-page collection of poetry and short pieces of prose, priced at fifteen cents, made two appearances, in April and May 1921, and then disappeared.

For some reason, in December 1921, when the ''Herald'' was celebrating its thirtieth anniversary, the masthead began to include the words, "Founded in 1866, Daily since 1891." The reason for the determination of this date of "founding" is uncertain. Perhaps the ''Herald'' decided to adopt its rival, the ''Brunonian''—with which it had coexisted—as an antecedent. The ''Herald'' would then be able to stretch its life back to 1866, when another ''Brunonian'', this one a rival of the ''Brown Paper'', appeared. On October 19, 1924, a newspaper appeared with the title, ''Brown Daily Drivel'', a single issue printed by students as a travesty of ''The Brown Daily Herald''. In later years, the ''Herald'' issued its own comic papers, often on April Fools' Day, a tradition that continues today.

World War II

In 1933, the ''Herald'' caused a considerable stir by launching an editorial campaign urging students at Brown and at other colleges to sign petitions pledging "not to bear arms except when the country is invaded." An unexpected result was the appointment by the Rhode Island General Assembly of a committee "to investigate the University and to provide penalties for disloyalty to the State and Nation." The response of the students was to raise the number of pledges to 700. The peace drive spread to other colleges and soon an Intercollegiate Disarmament Council was inviting colleges across the country to join the peace movement.

The university administration, while not in favor of the stand, did not interfere, and the legislative committee concluded that there was no need to suppress the movement as there was no evidence of a connection with disloyal organizations outside the University. When a destructive hurricane struck New England on September 21, 1938, during freshman week, eight upperclassmen who were on campus to greet the freshmen managed to get out by candlelight a mimeographed one-page edition of the ''Herald'', followed by a similar two-page issue the next day.

During World War II, ''The Brown Daily Herald'' again suspended publication on January 12, 1943. From March 10 to August 13, 1943 the paper was published weekly and called the ''Brown Herald''. From August 20, 1943 to October 5, 1945 the weekly ''Brown Herald-Record'' replaced the ''Brown Herald'' and the '' Pembroke Record'', and during that time had a woman editor, Audrey Mishel '44. In September 1947, when the ''Herald'' resumed daily publication, it published a magazine called ''Midnight'', a manual of sorts for the ''Herald'' staff. The title came from the paper's deadline.

1950s–1960s

Since September 1947, ''The Brown Daily Herald'' has been published regularly. However, its duration is not as long as its numbering suggests, having been inadvertently extended on January 18, 1959, when the volume number abruptly changed from 68 to 88, an error on which all subsequent numbering has been based. ''The Brown Daily Herald Supplement'' was first published on September 28, 1959. The contents of the first issue were an interesting assortment—a review of '' Lady Chatterley's Lover'' (recently reissued in the United States, where it had been banned), photographs of life on South Main Street (identified on the cover as "Slums"), an article on the prospects of the Ivy League season, an article on new chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, and a cartoon by Jules Feiffer.

''The Supplement'' continued to be a weekly (although not always on the same day of the week) publication until 1963. ''The Brown Herald Review'', containing literary pieces, art, and book reviews, was published eight times during the academic year from October 1963 until January 1966. A hoax issue of the Herald which went wrong was that of December 6, 1965, with its oversized headline, "Pembrokers Get Apartments; Experiment Begins in Spring," and related stories. The next day, Editor-in-Chief M. Charles Bakst '66 and two managing editors resigned, stating that in conceiving the hoax issue they had believed that it "would be humorous in the short-run and conducive in the long run to a more thorough discussion of Pembroke's residential and social system."

In fact, their stories had been taken at face value by some students, faculty, and administration, who were not amused. On March 27, 1964, a similar effort proclaiming "Pembroke No Longer 'Coordinate'; Corporation Makes Brown 'Co-ed and " Keeney Selects Special Committee to Supervise 'Herald had brought forth no more than a cheerful communication to the managing board from President Keeney, probably because of the proximity to April Fools' Day.

1960s–1990s

In 1968, Beverly Hodgson '70 was acclaimed by the press as the "First Woman Editor of Ivy League Daily" (and coincidentally later married the nephew of Audrey Mishel, the woman editor of the ''Herald-Record'' of World War II), and with her managing editor, another woman, Laura Hersh '70, got the ''Herald'' out from its new offices at 195 Angell Street. In 1973, ''The Brown Daily Herald'' Voluntary Publishing Association, which took in outside printing jobs as well as publishing the ''Herald'', was facing financial difficulties after purchasing typesetting equipment.

The solution was the founding of ''Fresh Fruit'', a college-oriented tabloid with distribution to eight college campuses and the potential for generating advertising income. Its first appearance was in ''The Brown Daily Herald'' of February 15, 1973. In February 1975, an editorial staff separate from that of the ''Herald'' took over the publication of ''Fresh Fruit''. The ''Herald'', still in debt after a 1974 operating loss of $10,000, began an alumni subscription drive, filed claims against its creditors, and sought incorporation under the laws of Rhode Island.

With the Commencement issue of 1975, ''The Brown Daily Herald Voluntary Publishing Association'' became ''The Brown Daily Herald, Inc.'' In 1985, the ''Herald'' entered into a contract with the Undergraduate Council of Students, in which UCS agreed to purchase 5,500 subscriptions at five dollars each for every member of the student body, though UCS later cancelled this contract and the ''Herald'' has been free since. A weekend insert called ''Good Clean Fun'' was added in 1986.

In September 1989, a new supplement, intended to be monthly, appeared under the title, ''In Depth''. Editor-in-chief of the ''Herald'' Amy Bach expressed the hope that the new supplement would serve as a forum for the thorough exploration of one topic each month. The first issue was devoted to articles on depression, the second to Providence's neighborhoods. On November 2, 1991, ''The Brown Daily Herald'' held a one-hundredth anniversary celebration, at which William Kovach was the keynote speaker.

Today's ''Herald''

Sections

The ''Herald'' is organized into four sections:

;1. News: The largest section of the newspaper, "News" covers University news—stories directly affecting the Brown community, from student life, to prominent speakers, to administrative changes—metro news—stories central to Providence and its surrounding cities, ranging from Rhode Island state legislation to government-related student protest, including the goings on of local restaurants and shops—and science and research—stories regarding research of both science and humanities professors as well as general science topics and news on campus. The University News, Metro and Science & Research sections were consolidated into the News section under the 126th Editorial Board.

;2. Arts & Culture : With reports and reviews of on-campus plays, films, and art exhibitions and installations, the ''Arts & Culture'' section is a soft news alternative to the typically straightforward and sharp News section. It appears Wednesday and Friday.
;3. Sports: A blend of opinion and match coverage, the ''Sports'' section covers intercollegiate competitions, profiles individual players, and offers opinions on professional sports teams and leagues.

;4. Commentary: Comprising letters and op-eds, ''Commentary'' appears daily. The editorial page contains a staff editorial, as well as letters to the editor.

''Post-'' magazine

''Post-'' is the ''Herald''s weekly arts and culture magazine, running each Thursday. Its name originally referenced the academic convention of using "post-" as a prefix—as in " post-modernism" and "post-structuralism"—to indicate transcending older modes of thought.

''Post-'' regularly contains film, television, and music reviews, editorials on Brown University's arts scene, and two sex columns called "Sexpertise", one written by a male and one by a female. It also includes colorful commentary on current events.

''Herald'' style

The ''Herald'' has a unique style. The paper references academic departments, faculty titles, University campaigns, and organizations abbreviated by acronyms so regularly that it has several case-specific policies for references. The ''Herald'' does not employ the serial comma, and favors the word "said" after a quote over "mentioned", "pointed out", etc.

Generally the ''Herald'' defaults to the Associated Press style, and therefore keeps numerous copies of the ''AP Stylebook'' on hand in its office.

Staff

''The Brown Daily Herald'' employs over 250 voluntary staff members, who work as editors, business managers, reporters, designers, photographers, and artists. Tom Li is the Editor-in-Chief and also serves as president of The Brown Daily Herald Inc., and Ryan Doherty is managing editor and vice president.

Editorial board

The editorial board manages the ''Herald'' and is responsible for its daily production. Members usually serve for the spring of their junior year and the fall of their senior year. The board usually consists of between three and seven positions. In recent years, positions on the board have included Editors-in-Chief, Managing Editors, and Senior Editors.

The ''Herald'' is currently under its 135th editorial board. For this reason, the members of the board are collectively referred to as "135" (pronounced "one-thirty-five"). The members of the 135th editorial board are: Editor-in-Chief Tom Li '26, Managing Editor Ryan Doherty '26, Managing Editor Owen Dahlkamp '26, Managing Editor Julianna Chang '26, Senior Editor Anisha Kumar '26, and Senior Editor Yael Wellisch '26.

Business

Because the ''Herald'' is independent of Brown University, it must generate revenue to sustain itself. The business staff does so mainly through soliciting advertisements in the paper. Additionally, the ''Herald'' offers daily and weekly subscriptions to the newspaper, and fills around 30 subscriptions each week. Currently, the staff consists of an executive management team, staff members, and one paid employee.

Production

The production staff of the ''Herald'' is responsible for the technical aspects of putting out the day's paper. They design the layout of the paper with Adobe InDesign, copy edit the articles, and post content to the Web.

Section editors

Each of the ''Herald''s sections is managed by two or more section editors.

Web presence

In 1995, the ''Herald'' became one of the first college newspapers in the United States to publish itself online as well as in print. The newspaper is published each day at —where it can be viewed at no cost to the user—and is divided into sections for easy browsing. All pictures and comics appearing in the paper are also uploaded.

The Web site has informative sections about the ''Herald'' itself, including "About the Herald", an FAQ, and contact information. It also announces scheduled meetings and provides means for students to get involved, alumni to subscribe, and people or companies to place advertisements in the paper. Additionally, an archives section organizes and makes available each volume of the ''Herald'' since March 12, 2004.

Over the winter break of December 2006/January 2007, the ''Herald''s Web site was redesigned with ease of reading and a "clean" feel in mind. The home page was changed to display not only the leading stories but also to list every article appearing in the day's volume. Also, many of the darker colors of the previous site were replaced with white, once again emphasizing a cleaner feel. Additionally, a PDF document of the current print edition's front page became available for download at the bottom of the home page.

The Web site underwent a second major redesign in April 2009 during the week before Spring Weekend. The changes include a new banner and layout and navigation scheme that more prominently displays advertisements. The Web site is still supported by College Publisher.Brown Daily Herald Online—Home
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Office

The Herald's offices are at 88 Benevolent Street, where it shares space with WBRU, Brown University's student-run radio station, which sold its signal in 2017 but continues to broadcast online. The Herald moved there in 2020 from 195 Angell Street, its home for a half-century.

9-Spot

Each Thursday night, the ''Herald''s editorial board hosts a meeting at 9:00 p.m. for all ''Herald'' staff, at which staffers offer story ideas and talk about whatever is happening outside of the office. The editors spend much of their time at the ''Herald'' office, so they rely on the staff members at 9-spot to contribute a number of story ideas.

Controversies

Accusations of treason, communism

In the early 1930s, the ''Herald'' began a pacifist movement called "War Against War". The paper launched an editorial campaign urging Brown students to sign petitions pledging "not to bear arms except when the country is invaded." The movement spread across the country and gained popularity in college papers large and small, which quickly endorsed the ''Herald''s actions. When Rhode Island officials caught wind of the campaign, they immediately grew suspicious and appointed a committee "to investigate the University and to provide penalties for disloyalty to the United States."

The result was a resolution—passed unanimously by the Rhode Island General Assembly—accusing the ''Herald'' of treason and associating the paper with the Communist movement. Providence attorney William Needham, himself a graduate of Brown's class of 1915, called the War Against War campaign "a foreign movement of communistic tendencies."

Throughout the process, the Brown administration did not interfere in the legislative action, citing freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

In the end, the committee concluded that the ''Herald'' and its campaign were not serious enough threats to warrant suppression or any further action, as there was no connection between the ''Herald'' and disloyal organizations.

David Horowitz advertisement

In 2001, the ''Herald'' ran an advertisement placed by conservative writer and activist David Horowitz, entitled "Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Blacks is a Bad Idea for Blacks—and Racist, Too!" The advertisement had circulated around many college newspapers, but most rejected it, including ''The Harvard Crimson'' and the ''Columbia Daily Spectator''. The ''Herald''s editors at the time—Katherine Boas, Brooks King, Patrick Moos, and Jahred Adelman—decided that if the ad was sent to them, they would run it.

The ad appeared in the March 13, 2001 edition of the ''Herald'', and was met with shock and criticism. Among its ten points, the ad stated that Americans should be the last to pay reparations because slavery had existed worldwide for centuries before white American Christians intervened. It also stated that African-Americans were the richest and most privileged black people alive.

On March 14, over 60 students came to the ''Herald'' office demanding to speak to the newspaper's leadership, and met face to face with the ''Herald'' editors. The following day, a coalition of student groups distributed a petition around campus that condemned the ''Herald''s decision to print the ad and demanded that the paper give $725—the amount they believed Horowitz had paid for the ad—to minority groups on campus. In addition, the petition called for the ''Herald'' to give the coalition a free full-page ad to "educate the greater Brown community on related issues."

The editors refused to give in, setting off a chain reaction of events that shook the University.

On the morning of March 15, coalition members took 4,000 copies of the ''Herald'' from 10 distribution points. In place of the newspapers, they left a flyer stating: "We are using this action as an opportunity to show our community at Brown that our newspaper is not accountable to its supposed constituents. It is a newspaper run by Brown-student opportunists and careerists who are completely unaccountable to the University's aims and its student body."

the ''Herald'' responded on March 16, a Saturday, by reprinting 1,000 copies of the stolen Friday paper. ''Herald'' staffers distributed them by hand to students in the lobby of the Sharpe Refectory (a.k.a. the ''Ratty''), the largest dining hall on campus.

That same day, the University issued a statement supporting the ''Herald'': "Consistent with its commitment to the free exchange of ideas, the University recognizes and supports the ''Herald''s right to publish any material it chooses, even if that material is objectionable to members of the campus community." Sheila Blumstein, then Interim President of the University, later told the ''Herald'' that she supported the free exchange of ideas and that the ''Herald'' had a right to print the ad. But she said ''Herald'' staff may not have handled the issue as diplomatically as they could have.

National newspapers caught wind of the controversy and covered the story. ''The New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', and ABC News, all ran stories about events on campus.

The furor surrounding the events later died down, with neither party reaching an agreement. The ''Herald'' still maintains that its actions were protected under freedom of the press.

A Slavery and Justice Committee was formed a few years after. Though Jim Campbell, chairman of the Committee, was one of the ''Herald''s detractors, and the Committee considered reparations as part of its agenda, there is no official connection between the Committee and the events surrounding the advertisement.

In March 2011, on the 10th anniversary of the reparations advertisement, an ad about the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts for Horowitz' website www.walloflies.org was published in the ''Herald'' leading to another campus-wide controversy. Though the controversy quickly died down, graffiti stating "The ''BDH'' is racist" remained on sidewalks on and around campus.

Notable ''Herald'' alumni

* Jacob Appel (Class of 1995): bioethicist
* Rebecca Ballhaus (Class of 2013): journalist, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting
* Aaron T. Beck (Class of 1942): founder of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania
* David Corn (Class of 1981): Washington, D.C. bureau chief for '' Mother Jones''
* William A. Dyer (Class of 1924): former general manager and president of the '' Indianapolis Star''
* John Ghazvinian (Class of 1996): journalist and petroleum expert
* Richard Holbrooke (Class of 1962): former United States Ambassador to the United Nations and former Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan.
* Jonathan Karp (Class of 1986): publisher, CEO of Simon & Schuster
* Brian Lies (Class of 1985): author and illustrator
* Usha Lee McFarling (Class of 1989): winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting
* George Musser (Class of 1988): author and editor at ''Scientific American''
* Steven Rattner (Class of 1974): Deputy Chairman and Deputy CEO, Lazard Frères & Co.
* James Risen (Class of 1977): journalist for '' The Intercept,'' winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting
* Jeff Shesol (Class of 1991): cartoonist, ''Thatch''; scriptwriter for Bill Clinton
* Michael J. Silverstein (Class of 1976): managing director at the Boston Consulting Group
* Judith Warner (Class of 1987): author
* Craig Waters (Class of 1979): journalist, author, communications director for the Florida Supreme Court
* Janet Yellen (Class of 1967): economist, former chair of the Federal Reserve and current Secretary of the Treasury for the United States Reddy, Sudeep; Ballhaus, Rebecca (October 9, 2013). "Janet Yellen's Short and Storied Newspaper Career". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 10, 2024. https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-REB-20862

See also

* '' The Brown Jug''
* '' The Brown Noser''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown Daily Herald, The
1891 establishments in Rhode Island
Brown University organizations
Newspapers established in 1891
Student newspapers published in Rhode Island