User:Theoxfordblue/sandbox

=The Oxford Blue=

The Oxford Blue is an online newspaper produced entirely by students at the University of Oxford. Founded in 2020 and named after the university colours, it is Oxford University’s first new newspaper in 30 years. The newspaper receives no university funding, and is entirely independent[1].

Foundation
The Oxford Blue was founded by two undergraduates, Lois Heslop (Lady Margaret Hall), the founding Editor-in-chief, and Phoebe Hennell (Christ Church), the founding Managing Director of the newspaper. Heslop was previously Deputy Editor of Cherwell newspaper, and Hennell had spent time working for a series of London start-ups before coming to Oxford.[2] Hennell and Heslop conceived the newspaper during their second year at university, and it started publication in January 2020. It received over 250 applications to join the founding editorial team in its first two weeks. The first editorial discusses that the newspaper seeks to be a “disruptive new voice, celebrating individuality, battling elitism and heralding a new direction for student journalism”[3]. The newspaper was founded in response to the perceived “cliquey” nature of Oxford student journalism with the aim of providing opportunities for students to develop their journalistic skills, regardless of background. It seeks to be accessible to all, especially those with no prior experience in journalism.

The publication is also the first digital-only student newspaper in Oxford.

Aims
The Oxford Blue is a training newspaper, and has a collaborative editing process designed to provide both its editorial team and writers with practical journalistic experience. The newspaper states that authors retain control over the content they produce and no changes are published without their consent.

The Oxford Blue produces daily content on its website, as well as a weekly podcast. It seeks to provide its readers with global perspectives on international events that they may otherwise not be exposed to, and has a section dedicated to world news. In addition to reporting on existing stories, it has an Investigations Team which seeks out stories it considers to be of significance to the student community based upon tips and its own research. It also has a focus on individuality and hires columnists each term, as well as podcast hosts.

The sections on the paper include Current Affairs & News, Global Affairs, Opinion, Culture, Interviews, Columns and Media.

Organisation
The Oxford Blue, its podcast, YouTube and social media channels are subsidiaries of Oxford Blue Publications Limited[4], which has a Board of Directors, made up of former editors, managing directors and business staff. Each term, the Board appoints two editors-in-chief and one managing director to run the paper.

The Oxford Blue and Oxford Blue Publications Limited is run entirely by students at the University of Oxford. The Board of Directors is chaired by the founders, and each term’s Editors and Managing Director join the Board for the term after their tenure. The Board also elects other members on a yearly basis. The Editors and Managing Director are termly positions, elected by the Board of Directors. The term’s Editors and MD choose the Editorial and Business teams. The editorial team is divided into sections - currently Current Affairs, Global Affairs, Culture, Lifestyle & Columns, Opinion and Media. Each section has a Senior Editor, and several section editors. The section editors are responsible for putting out commissions and editing pieces, while the Senior Editor is responsible for publishing to the website and social media channels, as well as leading content direction.

Scoops
Over its first few months of launch, The Oxford Blue grew fast and developed a reputation for exposing Oxford’s dark underbelly, with several scoops which went national. In February, an Oxford Blue exclusive revealed that Pembroke College don Peter King had plead guilty to possession of child pornography, which was picked up by several national news outlets, including the Guardian and the BBC. The Blue also broke the story that Christ Church papyrology professor Dirk Obbink had been arrested for stealing papyrus fragments from Oxford’s Sackler Library. The newspaper exposed several racism scandals at the university in June and July 2020, and revealed that the university was violating doctor-patient confidentiality agreements in suspension cases.

[1] https://www.theoxfordblue.co.uk/about-us/ [2] https://www.theoxfordblue.co.uk/2020/01/21/a-letter-from-the-editorial-team/ [3] https://www.theoxfordblue.co.uk/2020/01/21/a-letter-from-the-editorial-team/

[4] https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/12564815/filing-history