''The Muse'', successor to ''

the Memorial Times ''The Memorial Times'' was a publication of Memorial University, Memorial University College prior to its successor, ''The Muse (student paper), The Muse''. The ''Times'', the first student newspaper of Memorial University, was started at least ...

'', began publishing in 1950 in

St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador St. John's is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. The city spans and is the easternmost city in North America ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, as an unnamed paper. That paper held a contest to choose a new name, the winner being a professor who named the paper after all of the following: *a bastardization of the

Greek letters The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as w ...

Μ and υ, for

Memorial University Memorial University of Newfoundland, also known as Memorial University or MUN (), is a public university in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, based in St. John's, with satellite campuses in Corner Brook, elsewhere in Newfoundland and ...

; *a reference to the

Greek goddesses Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

of the arts; *a joke, saying this was MU's (Memorial University's) paper; *and the role of a paper as a place where students could muse. Beginning with a small editorial staff controlled by the

student union A students' union, also known by many other names, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, ...

, ''The Muse'' grew into an autonomous student-run paper. In the early years of publication, it was a campus gossip tabloid; in the late 1960s it developed an

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

flair which attracted the attention of the provincial government and the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

(RCMP), with the latter including ''The Muse'' in their investigations of supposedly

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

organizations. In the late eighties, the paper was enlivened by the

women's movement The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality between men and women. Such iss ...

, and followed a more activist agenda, including special coverage of gay, lesbian and bisexual issues not discussed in the mainstream media, and a boycotted list of advertisers. ''The Muse'' incorporated in 2002 as The Muse Publications Inc, and became fully autonomous from the Memorial University students' union in January 2003. ''The Muse'' focuses on campus life,

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

, university research, campus, municipal, provincial and federal politics, local music and sports, and periodically reports on world politics and

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...

. Before The Muse went online, during the fall and winter semesters ''The Muse'' distributed 12,000 copies a week to various parts of multiple campuses, and throughout St. John's. Circulation ceased during the summer months. ''The Muse'' was a member of

Canadian University Press Canadian University Press is a non-profit co-operative and newswire service owned by more than 50 student newspapers at post-secondary schools in Canada. Founded in 1938, CUP is the oldest student newswire service in the world and the oldest ...

(CUP), a non-profit co-operative and newswire service owned by about 70 student newspapers at post-secondary schools in Canada. In January 2004, the ''Muse'' hosted the Canadian University Press national conference (CUP 66) for the first time in the paper's history. The conference was awarded to ''The Muse'' over

the Gateway (newspaper) ''The Gateway'' is the student paper at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It is published once a month in print during the academic year (September–April) and on a regular basis online throughout the calendar year by the G ...

of the University of Alberta at the Montreal CUP conference in 2003 (CUP 65). The conference was held at the Fairmont Newfoundland Hotel. Many writers with ''The Muse'' have gone on to successful careers - not only in journalism, but in arts, business, music, law and politics. At CUP 71, held in Saskatoon during January 2009, the ''Muse'' officially became the sister paper of the ''

Fulcrum A fulcrum is the support about which a lever pivots. Fulcrum may also refer to: Companies and organizations * Fulcrum (Anglican think tank), a Church of England think tank * Fulcrum Press, a British publisher of poetry * Fulcrum Wheels, a bicy ...

'' at the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottawa ...

. The two papers are no longer in contact. In fall of 2017, after 7-8 years of cutting the size of the print paper, due to budgetary constraints, the chief editor announced plans to stop print production of The Muse. Since then, The Muse has only been available online. However, archives of the printed paper from 1950-2017 can be found on their website.

Well-known ''Muse'' contributors

Steve Bartlett Harry Stephen Bartlett (born September 19, 1947) is an American politician and former president and CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable, an advocacy group lobbying the U.S. federal government on financial services legislation, a position ...

: Reporter with ''St. John's Telegram'' *

Donna Butt Donna may refer to the short form of the honorific ''nobildonna'', the female form of Don (honorific) in Italian. People *Donna (given name); includes name origin and list of people and characters with the name * Roberto Di Donna (born 1968), Ita ...

: Newfoundland actress and co-founder of Rising Tide Theatre *Michael Connors:

NTV NTV may refer to: Television * NTV (Bangladesh), a Bengali-language satellite television channel in Bangladesh * NTV (India), Telugu regional channel * NTV (Kenya) * NTV (Mongolia), a television channel based in Mongolia * NTV (Newport Television) ...

evening news reporter and occasional anchor * Ron Crocker: former regional director of CBC in Atlantic Canada *Howard Davies: Chairman of NatWest Group. *

Gwynne Dyer Michael Gwynne Dyer (born 17 April 1943) is a British-Canadian military historian, author, professor, journalist, broadcaster, and retired naval officer. Dyer rose to prominence in the 1980s with the release of his television series ''War'' in 1 ...

: internationally acclaimed journalist and author, with a syndicated column in several countries * Fred Gamberg: late promoter of local music acts * Bill Gillespie: CBC international correspondent * John Gushue: CBC writer, broadcaster and ''

Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

'' columnist *

Bob Hallett Robert "Bob" Hallett (born 1966) is a Canadian musician, author, producer, and entrepreneur, best known as a founding member of the Canadian folk rock band Great Big Sea (1993–2013). He is also a native of St. John's, Newfoundland, Hallett co ...

Great Big Sea Great Big Sea was a Canadian folk rock band from Newfoundland and Labrador, best known for performing energetic rock interpretations of traditional Newfoundland folk songs including sea shanties, which draw from the island's 500-year Irish, Scot ...

multi-instrumentalist *

Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy ( ...

: editorial page editor with the St. John's daily newspaper ''

The Telegram ''The Telegram'' is a daily newspaper published weekdays and Saturdays (as ''The Weekend Telegram'') in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. History ''The Evening Telegram'' was first published on April 3, 1879 by William James Herde ...

'' * Wayne Johnston: author of ''

The Divine Ryans ''The Divine Ryans'' is a 1999 Canadian film directed by Stephen Reynolds, written by Wayne Johnston as an adaptation of his novel, and starring Robert Joy and Pete Postlethwaite.Gerald Pratley, ''A Century of Canadian Cinema''. Lynx Images, 2003 ...

'' and ''

The Colony of Unrequited Dreams ''The Colony of Unrequited Dreams'' is a novel by Wayne Johnston, published on September 30, 1998 by Knopf Canada. Johnston's breakthrough work, the novel was a Canadian bestseller, and was shortlisted for the 1998 Giller Prize and the 1998 Gov ...

'' * Doug Letto: '' CBC: Here and Now'' senior producer * Art May: Former president of Memorial University *

Earle McCurdy Earle McCurdy (born 1950) is a former leader of the Newfoundland and Labrador New Democratic Party and a former labour leader in Newfoundland and Labrador. He was president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union from 1993 to 2014, succeeding fo ...

: president of the

Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union The Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW) Union is a trade union in Newfoundland and Labrador that represents 15,000 workers. Most of the members are in the fishing industry but the FFAW also has organized workers in the hotel, hospitality, brewin ...

(FFAW/CAW) * Michael Rossiter:

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

political reporter, producer * Wallace Ryan: Newfoundland artist and ardent

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

Greg Thomey Greg Thomey (born May 8, 1961) is a Canadian comedian, actor and playwright and a founding member of the long-running television program ''This Hour Has 22 Minutes''. He has been a recipient of numerous Gemini Awards. Born in St. John's, Newfou ...

: co-creator and former co-host of CBC's ''

This Hour Has 22 Minutes ''This Hour Has 22 Minutes'' (commonly shortened to ''22 Minutes'' since 2009) is a weekly Canadian television comedy that airs on CBC Television. Launched in 1993 during Canada's 35th general election, the show focuses on Canadian politics wi ...

'' *

Brian Tobin Brian Vincent Tobin (born October 21, 1954) is a Canadian businessman and former politician. Tobin served as the sixth premier of Newfoundland from 1996 to 2000. Tobin was also a prominent Member of Parliament and served as a cabinet minister i ...

: former

premier, * Clyde Wells: former Newfoundland and Labrador premier and

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

Chief Justice

External links

''The Muse''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muse, The Newspapers published in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador Student newspapers published in Canada Memorial University of Newfoundland Weekly newspapers published in Newfoundland and Labrador

Well-known ''Muse'' contributors

See also

External links