The Daily Nebraskan

About The Daily Nebraskan

The Daily Nebraskan is the student newspaper of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, published in Lincoln, Nebraska, and one of the oldest college newspapers in the United States. Established in 1871 as the Monthly Hesperian Student, it has been published under various names for more than 150 years, documenting the life of Nebraska's flagship public university from the raw prairie days of the 1870s to the present. Entirely student-produced and managed, it publishes at dailynebraskan.com, covering campus and Lincoln news along with arts, entertainment, and sports, with an opinion page featuring student columnists.

The paper, once nicknamed "The Rag" by its readers, is now known simply as "The DN" to UNL students, and it has long been recognized as an independent voice on campus, operating separately from the university's College of Journalism and Mass Communications even though many journalism students work on its staff. Its history includes some of the most storied names in American letters, most famously Willa Cather, who served as a literary editor of the paper in the 1890s before becoming one of the country's great novelists.

Founded in 1871: The Monthly Hesperian Student

The Daily Nebraskan traces its origins to 1871, the same year the University of Nebraska opened its doors to its first students. It began as the Monthly Hesperian Student, a publication as young as the university itself, appearing in an era when Lincoln was a raw prairie village of about 2,400 people and the university consisted of a single building, University Hall, whose lumber had been hauled by wagon from Nebraska City.

The paper went through a series of names in its first three decades, reflecting the growing ambitions of its student editors. It was called the Nebraskan in 1892, then the Hesperian from 1892 to 1901, before becoming the Daily Nebraskan in 1901, the name it has carried ever since. The progression from a monthly literary publication to a daily newspaper tracked the transformation of the university from a frontier college into a major land-grant institution.

Willa Cather and the Hesperian years

The most famous figure in the paper's history is Willa Cather, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist of O Pioneers!, My Antonia, and Death Comes for the Archbishop. Cather enrolled at the University of Nebraska in 1890, originally intending to study science and medicine, but her ambitions changed after a professor published one of her essays in the Monthly Hesperian Student, the Daily Nebraskan's first iteration, and in the Nebraska State Journal.

Cather later described seeing her work in print as the launching pad of her success, recalling that youthful vanity could not be unaffected by the sight of itself in print. She went on to write columns for the paper and served as a literary editor of the Hesperian, with a number of her early short stories appearing in its pages in the 1890s. She also edited the paper, wrote for the Nebraska State Journal, served on the yearbook committee, and reviewed plays with a critical edge that earned her a reputation around Lincoln as a ruthless "meat-ax" critic. The paper's role in launching one of America's great writers remains its proudest claim to literary history.

Independence from the journalism college

Although many journalism students work at the Daily Nebraskan, the paper is independent of the university's College of Journalism and Mass Communications. It is entirely student-produced and managed, with students making the editorial decisions, reporting the stories, and producing the publication. The paper does employ a professional general manager: Allen Vaughan joined in July 2019, following the retirement of Dan Shattil, who had served in the role for 37 years before retiring in October 2019.

That independence has been a defining feature of the DN for generations. It means the paper's coverage of the university, from administration decisions to campus controversies, is not subject to the approval of the journalism school or the university administration, and it has allowed the paper to serve as a genuine watchdog on campus affairs.

What the DN covers

The Daily Nebraskan covers campus and Lincoln-area news, along with arts, entertainment, and sports. Its news section reports on university administration, student government, campus safety, and the issues affecting student life, while its city coverage extends into the broader Lincoln community. The paper's sports section follows the Cornhuskers through football season and beyond, documenting the athletic program that defines so much of the university's identity.

The arts and entertainment coverage chronicles Lincoln's music, theater, and cultural scenes, and the opinion page features student columnists debating the issues of the day. In recent years the paper has covered everything from charter anniversaries and campus construction to fraternity controversies and student protests, maintaining its role as the daily record of university life.

Publishing schedule

The paper's website publishes every school day during the fall and spring semesters, with the exceptions of the Tuesday before Thanksgiving break and the last four days of finals week. It publishes weekly during summer sessions. The print tradition of the paper, which once produced a daily paper with one of the largest circulations in the state, has evolved with the industry, but the daily rhythm of campus coverage continues online through the academic year.

The newsroom itself has been a subject of documentary interest: a short film titled "A Night in the Newsroom at Daily Nebraskan" captures the late-night production process, offering a glimpse of the student labor that goes into producing the paper under deadline pressure.

The Dailyer Nebraskan: a satirical spinoff

In 2008, the paper spawned a satirical sibling: the Dailyer Nebraskan, a bi-weekly publication featuring satirical news in the tradition of college humor papers. The spinoff gave DN staffers and other student writers a venue for parody and comedy, and it became a beloved fixture of campus humor, lampooning the university, the city, and the paper itself.

The existence of the Dailyer alongside the DN reflects a newsroom culture with room for both serious journalism and the irreverence that has always been part of college newspaper life. The satirical paper has continued to appear alongside its parent publication, a reminder that student journalism can laugh at itself even as it holds power to account.

Historic moments in the archives

Across more than 150 years of publication, the Daily Nebraskan has documented the episodes that shaped the university. Its archives include coverage of the 1948 Nebraska parking riots and the campus strike of 1970, moments when student unrest made national news. The paper's pages also carry articles written by the parents of Warren Buffett, the Omaha-born investor who would become one of the most famous businessmen in the world, a reminder of how deeply the paper is woven into the life of Nebraska families across generations.

The archives stretch back to the Monthly Hesperian Student era, offering a continuous record of the university's evolution from a frontier institution to a Big Ten research university. For historians of the Great Plains, the paper is an invaluable primary source on the social, cultural, and political life of the region as experienced by its students.

Circulation and readership

The Daily Nebraskan has historically been one of the largest newspapers in Nebraska by circulation, with figures around 22,000 reported in past years, making it the fifth-largest circulation of all newspapers in the state. That reach reflected the paper's role as a genuine daily newspaper for a university community of tens of thousands of students, faculty, and staff, distributed freely across the Lincoln campus.

Like student newspapers everywhere, the DN has navigated the shift from print to digital readership, but its audience remains the university community it has served since 1871: students who pick up the paper or visit the website to learn what is happening on their campus, in their city, and in the world beyond.

Reading the Daily Nebraskan

The Daily Nebraskan publishes online at dailynebraskan.com, with daily news, sports, arts and entertainment, and opinion coverage through the fall and spring semesters, and weekly publication during the summer. More than 150 years after the Monthly Hesperian Student first appeared, the paper continues to do what it has always done: to give University of Nebraska-Lincoln students a newspaper of their own, produced by students, for students, and independent in fact as well as in name.