The Student (newspaper)

''The Student'' is a fortnightly independent newspaper produced by students at the University of Edinburgh. It was founded in 1887 by Robert Louis Stevenson, making it the UK's oldest student newspaper. It held the title of Best Student Newspaper in Scotland, awarded by the ''Herald'' Student Press Awards in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010.

The newspaper has been independent of the university since 1992, but maintains a commercial agreement with the Edinburgh University Students' Association. Since September 2017, the paper has been produced on a fortnightly, rather than weekly, basis.

The newspaper is produced by volunteers, who fit this work around their studies. The newspaper is distributed on a Wednesday and usually consists of 32 pages. It has a physical circulation of 2,500 copies per issue and is read by some 30,000 people in Edinburgh.

History

''The Student'' was founded in 1887 by Robert Louis Stevenson. It started as a small weekly magazine, published by the Students' Representative Council. A typical, turn-of-the-century edition of ''The Student'' would open with a short biography of a notable person and an editorial. The remaining content largely comprised notes from various societies, sports results, poetry and literary reviews, and profiles of newly appointed lecturers. The magazine was supported by advertising, but cost two pence.

By the 1970s, ''The Student'' had become a weekly newspaper, roughly Berliner in format. The running of the newspaper was by this stage in the control of the Student Publications Board, a body independent of the university. It was during the first half of the 1970s that Gordon Brown was a news editor. The type of content had shifted to reflect the times: a typical copy would contain pages on news, the environment, society, features, politics and entertainment. By this point, the price had risen to five pence.

The 1990s saw the introduction of computers to the newspaper; the offices were also moved from the Student Publications Board offices at 1 Buccleuch Place to their present location in the Pleasance, anecdotally held to be space reclaimed after the closure of a monkey-testing lab. Initially, the newspaper was laid out on Apple Macintosh computers. During this period, Darius Danesh briefly wrote for the paper, as a film and music critic.

In 1992 ''Student'', which had been selling for 20 pence, was dropped by the student union as part of a cost-cutting exercise. A grant of £5,000 from the University Development Fund allowed it to continue as a student society for a few years. By 1997 the newspaper was under severe financial pressure, selling only around a thousand copies a week at 20 pence each, the advertising was largely ineffective. During the course of the year the newspaper stopped publishing to avoid going into debt and a relaunch was scheduled for the start of the Autumn term with a shift towards a free distribution model. This shift resulted in a wholesale change in how the newspaper was produced. For the first time the newspaper was printed on a web offset press, full colour printing was available and the newspaper was fully produced on computers not old fashioned light boxes. The initial circulation after the relaunch was around 5,000 copies distributed through cardboard stands around the various university campuses. To ease the transition the newspaper was published on a fortnightly basis for a year. After a successful advertising funded first year the newspaper returned to being published weekly and within two years the circulation crept up to over 12,000 copies a week aided by initiatives such as a second edition catering to the other universities within Edinburgh and a seven-day TV guide.

The paper, now a tabloid in format, won the ''Herald'' Student Media Award for best newspaper in 1998, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010 and the ''Guardian'' Student Media Awards for 'Best Newspaper on a Shoestring' in 2001. The paper was redesigned several times in the lead-up to the millennium and winning the ''Herald'' Award for its design in 2004. After failing to win the same award the following year, the paper was again radically redesigned in 2006.

Many of ''The Students former writers have gone on to become internationally renowned journalists and politicians. Past staff members of ''Student'' include the former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown; Lord Steel; Robin Cook; and many of Fleet Street's reporters and editors. Recent graduates include ''Guardian'' staff writer and editor Helen Pidd and BBC
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