The Michigan Daily

The Michigan Daily, also known as 'The Daily, ' is the independent student newspaper of the University of Michigan published in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Established on September 29, 1890, the newspaper is financially and editorially independent from the university. The Daily is often considered one of the most influential student publications, and is one of the largest student publications in the United States with over 500 student staff members.

The Michigan Daily is the only newspaper in Washtenaw County, Michigan. It is published every weekday during the fall and winter terms, and weekly during the spring and summer terms. In 2020, the paper received nearly 6 million website visits, and serves over 50,000 university students and nearly 350,000 residents throughout Washtenaw County.

History
In 1952, the Soviet delegate to the United Nations, F. A. Novikov, singled out the newspaper as emblematic of American warmongering. On April 12, 1955, when the success of Jonas Salk's polio vaccine was announced at the University of Michigan the Daily was the first newspaper to report it. In 1957, the Daily sent a staff member to Little Rock, Arkansas who, pretending to be a student, attended classes on the first day of integration.

Activist and politician Tom Hayden, a former Daily editor in chief who helped found Students for a Democratic Society while editing the Daily, came to personify the publication's editorial philosophy during the 1960s. The paper was the subject of national press coverage when, in 1967, it urged the legalization of marijuana, and again during the Gulf War in 1991, when it called for the reinstatement of the military draft.

The Daily was instrumental in the spread of the Paul is dead urban legend. An October 14, 1969 Daily article by Fred LaBour and John Gray, entitled "McCartney Dead; New Evidence Brought to Light", itemized various "clues", many of them of their own invention. Their "reporting" of McCartney's death is claimed by Beatleologist Andru J. Reeve to have been "the single most significant factor in the breadth of the rumor's spread."

The first female editor-in-chief of The Daily was Harriett Woods, who later served in Missouri State government, ran for the Senate twice in the 1980s nearly beating John Danforth the first time, and led the National Women's Political Caucus through its Year of the Woman in 1992.

In 2007, renovations to the historic building at 420 Maynard Street were completed, funded entirely by private donations from alumni. To dedicate the renovated building, a reunion of the staffs of The Michigan Daily, the Michiganensian yearbook, and the Gargoyle Humor Magazine was held from October 26 to 28, 2007.

On January 28, 2014, The Daily earned national recognition for breaking news that a Michigan football player had been separated from the university for sexual misconduct.

Overview
The newspaper is financially and editorially independent of the university's administration and other student groups, but shares a university building with other student publications on 420 Maynard Street, north of the Michigan Union. The Daily acts as Michigan's de facto journalism school, since the university does not have a journalism program or department.

Content
The Michigan Daily publishes content every day. The newspaper is published weekly in broadsheet form during the fall and winter semesters and in tabloid form from May to August. Broadsheets contain a lengthy SportsWednesday Sports section and occasionally an extended, themed issue called The B-Side from the Arts section. They also include a magazine, originally titled Weekend Magazine. In the fall of 2005, the magazine was renamed The Statement, a reference to former Daily editor-in-chief Tom Hayden's Port Huron Statement.

Management
The newspaper’s editorial staff is be led by the co-editors in chief and divided into the following sections: news, opinion, sports, arts, photography, web, copy, video, Statement, Michigan in Color, audience engagement, design, podcast, culture, training and inclusion, Focal Point and games. News is the largest section, with seven sections that include Academics and Student Government, Administration, Business and Public Safety, Campus Life, City, Government, and Research.

The editors-in-chief are elected by the entire newspaper staff and manage all sections. The managing editor and digital managing editor report to the editors-in-chief. Each section is led by at least one managing editor who appoints at least one senior editor and one assistant editor. The editorial page editors are the managing editors of the opinion section.

The Management Desk, referred to as MDesk, is the governing body of The Daily that makes decisions affecting the entire newspaper. Members of MDesk include the editors-in-chief and the managing editors of each section.

The Daily has strict bylaws regarding journalistic integrity and ethics. News writers cannot write for the opinion section, however, staff may transfer to the opinion section from news but cannot return to news. The newspaper also restricts news writers from expressing political views, as well as holding membership in any university student governments.

Notable alumni
Many columnists and editors from The Daily have gone to hold prominent positions in government, journalism, and more, working for publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post, Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, and the Chicago Tribune.

Alumni include playwright Arthur Miller, 47th governor of New York and presidential candidate Thomas Dewey, activist Tom Hayden, investment banker Bruce Wasserstein, journalist and physician Sanjay Gupta, former chairman of American Airlines George A. Spater, journalist and game show host Mike Wallace, and former lieutenant governor of Missouri Harriett Woods.

Notable journalists and writers include seven Pulitzer Prize winners: Eugene Robinson, Lisa Pollak, Ann Marie Lipinski, Amy Harmon, Stanford Lipsey, and Arthur Miller. They also include notable broadcast journalists like du-Pont Columbia Award winner David Schechter.

Awards won by The Daily include the 2023 National Pacemaker Award in online media, 22 awards from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2020 and 2021, and 14 awards from the Michigan College Press Association in 2018.