The Cavalier Daily

About The Cavalier Daily

It printed its first issue on January 15, 1890 — under the name College Topics — and it has been publishing, independently, ever since. The Cavalier Daily is the independent, student-run daily news organization at the University of Virginia: Virginia's oldest collegiate daily and the oldest daily newspaper in Charlottesville. Entirely student-run, nonprofit, and financially and editorially independent from the university, it is owned by The Cavalier Daily, Inc. and funded by advertising and donations. Its alumni write and edit for The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Associated Press, NBC News and Politico — and its 136-year run makes it one of the great student newspapers in American history.

1890: College Topics

The Cavalier Daily printed its first issue under the name College Topics on January 15, 1890. In 1924, the newspaper increased its publication schedule from twice a week to six times a week, becoming a daily. The following year, the paper's off-campus printer suffered a catastrophic fire, and the newspaper alternated between two and three publication days a week until 1940. During World War II, College Topics struggled for survival as UVA's student population was greatly reduced by the war effort; by 1943, the paper had become a four-page weekly featuring only bulletins. After the war, the paper increased its circulation and content — and on May 4, 1948, it was renamed The Cavalier Daily.

Independence: the founding principle

The Cavalier Daily is an entirely student-run, volunteer, nonprofit organization with an operating budget accrued through advertising and donations — financially and editorially independent from the University of Virginia. Students sell the ads to generate an annual budget of a few hundred thousand dollars; students write the copy; students edit and produce each page. That independence has been tested across 13 decades: the paper has covered the university's administrations, scandals and crises without fear of administrative retaliation, because no administrator controls its budget. Since the summer of 1996, it has been the only daily newspaper at the university.

The 1970s transformation

The admission of women and African-American students to UVA beginning in the early 1970s changed the face of the paper as well as the university. The increased diversity challenged what is often characterized as the preexisting "good old boy" attitude at both the school and The Cavalier Daily, producing a staff that became more motivated and ambitious. The first woman member of the Managing Board, Mary Love, was elected business manager in 1973; the first woman editor-in-chief, Marjorie Leedy, followed in 1976. Managing Board races became highly competitive, and the paper adopted more professional journalistic standards. In 1976, The Cavalier Daily became the first college publication to receive a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award — national recognition for a student paper's public-service journalism.

Competition and crisis

In 1973, a staff split led several unsuccessful Managing Board candidates to leave and form The Declaration, a weekly tabloid — an early lesson in the paper's fractious, ambitious internal politics. The paper has weathered media board crises, cartoon controversies, and the university governance crisis — each testing the independence its charter protects. Through every upheaval, the student managing board retained control: the paper's governance crises were resolved by students, not administrators.

Digital-first transformation

Like every newspaper, the Cavalier Daily faced the print-to-digital reckoning. Its managing board cut back to two weekly print editions and pushed daily content to the web — a transformation expected to save about $40,000 per year. The paper now publishes articles daily online, with a daily e-newsletter delivering top stories to subscribers' inboxes, and expanded social media presence. Print circulation is listed at 7,500, distributed on Grounds and in the surrounding Charlottesville area. The basement office in Newcomb Hall — where some 150–500 students (depending on the year) produce the paper — remains the newsroom, but the audience is increasingly digital.

Awards and alumni

The paper's diverse staff has earned numerous awards for outstanding news, editorial and feature writing and overall design. Its alumni roster is a who's who of American journalism: staffers have gone on to write and edit for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Baltimore Sun, Politico, Yahoo!, the Associated Press, NBC News and The Washington Post — with Pulitzer Prize winners among them. For a student newspaper, there is no better metric: the Cavalier Daily doesn't just cover the news, it produces the people who cover the news.

Covering Jefferson's university

Covering the University of Virginia means covering an institution with a singular history — founded by Thomas Jefferson, shadowed by slavery, transformed by coeducation and integration — and the Cavalier Daily has been its student witness for 136 years. The paper's archives hold the student perspective on every era: the "good old boy" decades, the transformative 1970s, the modern university's reckonings. When national media descends on Charlottesville — as it did in 2017 — the Cavalier Daily's reporters are already there, because they never left.

The Declaration and internal democracy

The Cavalier Daily's governance — student managing boards elected in competitive races, with real power over a real budget — makes it one of the most democratic student newspapers in America. The 1973 split that birthed The Declaration showed the system's friction; the decades of competitive board races since have shown its vitality. Student control means student responsibility: every budget crisis, every editorial controversy, every digital transformation has been decided by 20-year-olds learning leadership by exercising it. The paper's 136-year survival is proof the model works.

A training ground for American journalism

The Cavalier Daily's alumni list reads like a masthead of American journalism: The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Dallas Morning News, the Baltimore Sun, Politico, Yahoo!, the Associated Press, NBC News, The Washington Post — with Pulitzer Prize winners among them. For a university without a journalism major in its early decades, the paper was the journalism school: the place where UVA students learned reporting, editing, ethics and deadline pressure by practicing them. Generations of American journalists got their first bylines in a basement in Newcomb Hall — and carried the Cavalier Daily's standards into the nation's great newsrooms.

136 years and counting

From College Topics' first issue in 1890 through the printer's fire, World War II's near-death, the 1948 renaming, the transformative 1970s, and the digital-first 2010s, The Cavalier Daily has published independently for 136 years — Virginia's oldest collegiate daily, Charlottesville's oldest daily newspaper, and one of America's great student papers. Student-run, nonprofit, independent: the formula hasn't changed since 1890, and neither has the result. Its official website is cavalierdaily.com. From College Topics to the digital-first Cavalier Daily, the formula endures: students, independent, publishing — Virginia's oldest collegiate daily, still going strong after 136 years. One hundred thirty-six years after College Topics' first issue, The Cavalier Daily is still student-run, still nonprofit, still independent — and still Virginia's oldest collegiate daily. The Cavalier Daily's 136-year run is among the longest of any student newspaper in America — and it is entirely student-run, entirely independent, entirely nonprofit. Independent then, independent now, independent always. Still publishing, still student-run, still independent.