The Daily Princetonian

About The Daily Princetonian

The Daily Princetonian is the daily independent student newspaper of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, and one of the most storied college newspapers in the United States. Nicknamed "the Prince," it is the second-oldest daily college newspaper in the country, founded on June 14, 1876, as a biweekly called The Princetonian and published daily under its current name since 1892. Fully independent of Princeton University — directed by a graduate board of trustees, self-supporting, and produced by a staff of nearly 200 undergraduates — the paper publishes at dailyprincetonian.com and in print from its offices at 48 University Place, Princeton, New Jersey. Its alumni include some of the most celebrated names in American journalism and letters, and in 2026 it celebrated its 150th anniversary.

Founding in the Nineteenth Century

The newspaper was founded on June 14, 1876, as a biweekly publication named The Princetonian, serving the students of the College of New Jersey, as Princeton was then known. As the college grew, the newspaper grew with it: in 1883 it became a weekly, and in 1885 it increased its schedule to three times weekly. In 1892, the paper's name was changed to The Daily Princetonian — its current name — and its publication schedule was increased to five afternoons a week, making it the second college newspaper in America to publish daily. In 1895, publication was increased again to six mornings a week, establishing the daily rhythm that would define the paper for more than a century.

The early issues of the Prince already displayed the editorial ambition that would become its hallmark. Nineteenth-century editions called for unproctored examinations, a policy introduced with the implementation of the honor code system at the college in 1893 — an early example of the paper using its editorial voice to shape university policy. Another early issue published a telegraphic report of a Princeton Tigers baseball game, one of the first times a college newspaper used the telegraph in its sports coverage, demonstrating a willingness to adopt new technology in service of journalism.

Independence and Governance

The Prince is fully independent from Princeton University — a status it guards as the foundation of its journalism. The paper is directed by a graduate board of trustees consisting of former editors and business staffers, and it supports itself financially, receiving no financial support from the university. The organization is a registered nonprofit that prides itself on its independence, and no staff member is paid for their work. Daily operations are run by the editor-in-chief, who directs the editorial side of the paper, and the business manager, who directs the business and financial side; the two report independently to the newspaper's board of trustees, a structure designed to prevent business and editorial matters from mixing.

The paper's finances reflect its scale: produced by a staff of nearly 200 undergraduate students, the organization operates on an annual budget of more than $600,000, and encyclopedia sources have reported an endowment of $1.3 million. The print edition has carried a daily circulation of about 2,000 copies. Since 1966, the paper's offices have been housed at 48 University Place in Princeton, on the western edge of the university's main campus — an "appropriately messy" newsroom, as one profile put it, that generations of Princetonians associate with their college years.

Print and Digital Editions

The Daily Princetonian publishes in print during the academic year — five days a week from September to May in its classic daily form, with a reduced schedule during the university's reading periods — and maintains a continuous digital presence at dailyprincetonian.com. The paper's digital extensions include The Prox, a news blog, and Intersections, an arts and entertainment blog, and the organization operates a Daily Princetonian photo store selling prints of its photography. The website serves the campus community as well as the paper's far-flung alumni readership, and its daily online content covers campus news, national affairs, and opinion with the depth readers expect of a publication often described as one of the best college newspapers in the country.

Coverage and Editorial Voice

The best college newspapers are those that concern themselves not only with what is happening on campus but with the outside world as well, and The Daily Princetonian is widely considered to be among them. Its coverage spans Princeton University news — administration, academics, student life, and athletics — alongside national and international affairs, investigative reporting, and opinion writing that has at times drawn national attention. The paper's editorials and investigative pieces have periodically made it a subject of national debate itself, including a much-discussed 2021 investigation that drew commentary from higher-education observers — evidence of the paper's willingness to pursue difficult stories even when they provoke controversy.

Famous Alumni

The Prince has been the launching pad for an extraordinary list of achievers in journalism, literature, and public life. Its alumni include authors Robert Caro and F. Scott Fitzgerald; journalists R.W. "Johnny" Apple and John Stossel; and staffers who have gone on to The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, The Boston Globe, and People magazine. Political figures who worked on the paper include Woodrow Wilson, Adlai Stevenson, and Elena Kagan. The paper's alumni include journalists at The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as Pulitzer Prize winners. Few student publications in the world can claim a comparable record of launching consequential careers, and the paper's alumni network — organized through its graduate board of trustees — remains closely involved in sustaining the institution.

Awards and Recognition

The Daily Princetonian's journalism has been recognized by the leading collegiate press organizations. The paper received a Silver Crown at the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Awards in 2012 and was a finalist for the Associated College Press Online National Pacemaker Award in 2014. Its consistent presence in national collegiate journalism competitions reflects the professional standard of its student-produced reporting, photography, and design — a standard maintained across generations by an unpaid student staff working out of the University Place newsroom.

The Sesquicentennial

In 2026, The Daily Princetonian celebrated its 150th birthday, a milestone marked by features in regional media reflecting on the paper's century and a half of continuous publication. Founded as a biweekly in 1876 and renamed when it went daily fourteen years later, the paper has published through the administrations of twenty-one Princeton presidents, two world wars, and the transformation of American higher education. The sesquicentennial was an occasion for the paper's community — current staff, alumni trustees, and readers — to take stock of an institution that has remained student-run and independent through the entire span of its existence, a record few publications of any kind can match.

Second-Oldest Daily and Its Significance

The paper's status as the second-oldest daily college newspaper in the United States is more than a historical curiosity; it reflects the early adoption of daily journalism as a student enterprise at Princeton. When The Princetonian became The Daily Princetonian in 1892, daily student journalism was still a novelty in American higher education. The paper's daily rhythm — five afternoons a week at its founding as a daily, later six mornings — created a newsroom culture of continuous reporting that distinguished it from the weeklies and monthlies typical of nineteenth-century college publishing. That culture of daily journalism, sustained by successive generations of undergraduates, is the engine behind the paper's record of consequential reporting and its outsized influence on American journalism.

Organization and Student Life

The Prince's newsroom culture is famously demanding. Alumni recall putting in forty-hour weeks at the paper while squeezing in academic requirements, and the paper's current recruitment materials describe an organization that draws students from across the university's academic divisions. The editorial staff consists entirely of Princeton students, organized into news, opinion, sports, features, photography, and digital sections, with the business side — advertising, circulation, and finance — run by a parallel student staff under the business manager. The dual structure, with editorial and business reporting independently to the graduate board, is designed to protect the paper's editorial independence from commercial pressure as well as from university influence.

Legacy

One hundred and fifty years after its founding, The Daily Princetonian remains what it has been since 1876: a daily newspaper produced by Princeton students, independent of the university it covers, and committed to journalism that looks beyond the campus gates. Its alumni have shaped American letters, journalism, and public life; its archives document a century and a half of Princeton and American history as seen through student eyes; and its newsroom at 48 University Place continues to train the undergraduates who will write the next chapter. Among college newspapers, the Prince's combination of longevity, independence, and influence is unmatched — the second-oldest daily college paper in America, and one of its finest.