The Michigan Daily celebrates 107 years of editorial freedom

Josh White Jumping the Gun

"Is the daily paper a go?' This oft-repeated question is answered once for all by our appearance today. Yes, the Daily is a go. It is here to stay ... ."

Those words began the first editorial statement printed in the first issue of The Michigan Daily, on Monday, Sept. 29, 1890. Having completed 107 years of publication at the University, the Daily celebrated its birthday yesterday, along with the editorial freedom it has been afforded since its inception.

Spanning more than a century of culture, ideas, wars, technology and expansion, the principles that guided the founding of the Daily and the inauspicious beginnings of college newspapers around the country have not changed; it is those very principles that allow our nation's students to be informed about their university communities, about ideas from outside of their universities and to be exposed to an educational experience through journalism.

The Daily has always striven to "attain and protect an entirely independent, student-run newspaper because we believe a voice independent of the University administration will help us best attain our goals."

Not coincidentally, those words come from the Daily's preamble, which was drafted about the time of the Daily's centennial - when a group of editors realized that 100 years had passed since the paper put down in words why it exists. From the yellowed and frail pages of what began as the "U. of M. Daily" to the full-color broadsheet (and electronic edition on the Web) that we know today, the need for a college newspaper has only increased.

Founded at a time when Grand Opera House show tickets could be purchased for 35 cents and when there were fewer than 2,200 students at the University, the Daily united publications on campus that were faltering, in order to provide a useful daily paper for the University community. At its outset, the Daily began to both support and critique the University through news reports, sports stories and editorial commentary, claiming that "The Daily is its own excuse."

Above all, the Daily pushed to be a place where students could air their opinions and find a forum for the student voice. In the third issue of the Daily in 1890, the editors wrote that "believing that a true U. of M. paper should voice the sentiment of the entire University, we have made this publication, not the organ of one department, but of all."

Throughout the years, the Daily has remained separate from the University administration - students edit and manage all facets of the paper, from selling advertising to writing and editing stories, and the newspaper receives no funding from the University. Students work to keep the Daily a viable business while providing the University with the most comprehensive coverage of important news, events and athletics.

The separation is important to allow for the paper's editorial freedom. That freedom gives the Daily the ability to show the campus how its administration works without having to bow to University pressure. Financial independence permits the Daily to operate on its own, without any outside ability to "pull the plug" or unduly influence coverage.

This freedom is not provided everywhere. Some schools are subject to editorial control or financial strangleholds - if a university provides the newspaper's funds, they can withdraw them at any time. At some colleges, editorships are positions that are won in general student-body elections, which puts editor-hopefuls in the position of pandering to large student groups and currying favor with other student leaders.

From the Daily's first edition, the founders believed in providing the University with a newspaper that had integrity and independence while providing a journalistic education. Today, without a journalism curriculum and with the absence of any courses that provide practical journalistic experience, the Daily's role as educator increases. Students who want to work for a professional daily newspaper after graduation have nowhere else on campus to turn.

Protecting the Daily's mission has been the editors' concern for the past 107 years. Cherishing and recognizing the freedom this paper is afforded will allow the Daily to be passed on to next year's students, and to the students of the next century.

"The staff of the Daily proposed to set the ball rolling by establishing a paper which should attempt to do but one thing - give the news - promptly and accurately. The Daily pretends to do nothing else." - Daily editorial, Thursday, Oct. 2, 1890.

- Josh White can be reached over e-mail at jswhite@umich.edu

09-30-97