The Harvard Crimson
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The Harvard Crimson, of Harvard University, is the United States' oldest continuously published daily college newspaper. It was founded in 1873 and then incorporated in 1967. The Crimson traces its origin to the first issue of The Magenta, published January 24, 1873. The newspaper changed its name to "The Crimson" to reflect the new color of the college on May 21, 1875.
The student paper, which consistently wins high honors, has a rich past as a testing ground for future journalists, and several have gone on to win Pulitzer Prizes. Its distinguished alumni include Presidents John F. Kennedy of the Class of 1940 and Franklin D. Roosevelt (who served as president of the newspaper), Class of 1904. The current President of the Crimson is Lauren Schuker.
In 1991 student reporters for the Crimson were the first to break the news that Harvard had selected former Princeton Provost Neil Leon Rudenstine to succeed Derek Bok as President of the university. The reporters, who had learned of a secret meeting in New York, got their confirmation when they approached a surprised Rudenstine on his plane ride back to Boston. The story appeared in an extra bearing the dateline "SOMEWHERE OVER NEW ENGLAND."
Resourceful Crimson editors repeated the scoop in 2001, beating out national media outlets to report that Lawrence Summers would succeed Rudenstine.
The Harvard Crimson is the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is run entirely by Harvard undergraduates. Any student who volunteers and completes a series of requirements known as the "comp" is elected an "editor" of the newspaper. Thus, all staff members of the Crimson—including writers, photographers, graphic designers, and business staff—are technically "editors." Editorial power rests in a board of executives, collectively called a "guard," who are chosen for one-year terms each November in a highly competitive process. The Crimson is currently under the editorship of the 132nd Guard.
The Crimson is one of the few college newspapers in the U.S. that owns its own printing presses. At the beginning of 2004 the Crimson began publishing with a full-color front and back page, in conjunction with the launch of a major redesign.
The Crimson has a long and rich rivalry with a certain "semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine," known to most others as the Harvard Lampoon.
Notable Past Editors
- Jonathan Alter, journalist for Newsweek
- Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft
- Adam Clymer, author, journalist for the New York Times
- Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's Mad Money
- Michael Crichton, author
- E.J. Dionne, Jr., columnist for the Washington Post
- Daniel Ellsberg, released the Pentagon Papers
- James Fallows, journalist
- Susan Faludi, author
- Donald Graham, CEO and chairman of the Washington Post Co.
- Linda Greenhouse, journalist for the New York Times
- David Halberstam, author
- Dara Horn, novelist
- David Ignatius, columnist for the Washington Post
- Walter Isaacson, former CEO/chairman of CNN, former managing editor of Time, author
- Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr., publisher and CEO of the Washington Post
- John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States
- Mickey Kaus, journalist and political blogger
- Michael Kinsley, editorial and opinion editor for the Los Angeles Times, former founding editor of Slate magazine
- Nicholas D. Kristof, columnist for the New York Times
- Charles Lane, former editor of The New Republic
- Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
- Anthony Lewis, author and former columnist for the New York Times
- Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform
- Frank Rich, columnist for the New York Times
- Steve Roberts, television journalist
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States
- David Sanger, journalist for the New York Times
- Paul Sweezy, Marxist economist and funder of the Monthly Review
- Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, daughter of U.S. President John F. Kennedy
- Caspar Weinberger, United States Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan
- Jeff Zucker, president of NBC
External links
- The Harvard Crimson web page (http://www.thecrimson.com/)