Columbia Daily Spectator

Based on content from Wikipedia's article on the Columbia Spectator.

The Columbia Spectator is the daily newspaper of the university community and Morningside Heights. It is written by undergraduate students, who operate out of the Spectator Building at 112th St and Broadway. It was founded in 1877 and is the second-oldest continually operating college news daily in the nation, after The Harvard Crimson. It has been financially independent of the university since 1962. The paper is commonly known as the Spec. The paper is printed in broadsheet format every weekday during the academic term. It is delivered to over 150 locations throughout Morningside Heights and is read by over 10,000 people.

Organization

The Spec is currently run by the 131st managing board.

Writing and non-writing departments are each headed by an editor, and are overseen by the editor-in-chief. Writing departments include campus news, city news, sports, arts and entertainment, and opinion. Non-writing departments include photography, new media, production, copy, and business. The business department is headed by the publisher, and it has several sub-departments, each headed by a director.

First-time writers at Columbia begin their time at the paper with a 1- to 2-month trial period, during which they learn the basics of writing an article and publish their first articles. When their department editor sees fit, they become staff writers. Each November and December, students run for positions at the paper, a grueling process that takes nearly a month. They begin by "shadowing," 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 an editing test made up by their department editor that tests them on the fundamentals of editing. Finally, they go through the "Turkey Shoot," an interview in which the current managing board grills the applicant on why he feels he would be a good fit for the position. The results of the application process, including the new managing board are announced in mid-December, the weekend before finals.

Recent spinoffs

La Página

In 2005, the Spec started printing La Página, a weekly flyer in Spanish with translations of some of the week's English content most relevant to neighborhood readers.

Blogs

In February 2006, the paper launched a series of blogs, aptly named SpecBlogs. These blogs soon became defunct. Another blogging effort, launched in October 2006 to cover the 2006 midterm elections]], proved more successful. In December of 2007, they launched yet another blog, this time specific to the Opinion page, called [The Steps]

The Eye

In September 2006, Spectator staff launched The Eye, a weekly magazine featuring investigative pieces and commentary on Columbia and NYC. The name of The Eye relates both to the fact that one "spectates" with it and urban theorist Jane Jacobs' notion that "eyes on the street" help keep neighborhoods safe.

Current management board

• Editor in Chief - John Davisson
• Publisher - John Mascari
• Managing Editor, CDS - Amanda Erickson
• The Eye Editor - Alex Gartenfeld
• News Editors - Erin Durkin, Josh Hirschland
• Editorial Page Editor - Oriana Magnera
• Arts Editor - Andrew Martin
• Sports Editors - Jon August, Jon Tayler
• Managing Editor, The Eye - Sadia Latifi
• Production Editors - Lana Limon
• Photo Editor - Francis Bartus
• Head Copy Editor - Ian Corey-Boulet
• Sales Director - Marissa Lalli
• Finance Director - Lauri Feldman
• Alumni Director - Amanda Murphy
• Deputy Publisher, The Eye - Grace Chan

External links

• Columbia Spectator website
• The Eye weekly magazine