The Diamondback

About The Diamondback

The Diamondback is the independent student newspaper of the University of Maryland, College Park. Published by Maryland Media, Inc., a nonprofit organization, it receives no university funding and derives its revenue from advertising, a financial independence that dates to 1971 and was originally imposed as punishment. The paper began in 1910 as The Triangle and became known as The Diamondback in 1921. It was published as a daily print newspaper on weekdays for most of its history before becoming a weekly and then moving online-only in 2020. Its daily digital edition, published during the school year, is available at dbknews.com, serving students, faculty, staff and the surrounding College Park community.

Beginnings as The Triangle

The paper began in 1910 as The Triangle, the student newspaper of the Maryland Agricultural College, the institution that would become the University of Maryland. The University of Maryland Libraries has made a large volume of archived issues available on a fully searchable database, with historic issues dating from 1910 to 1971 digitized in the first phase of the project. The digitization effort drew on a crowdfunding campaign started in 2015 that raised more than $30,000, with contributions from scores of donors including former Diamondback writers and editors. The database allows viewers to scan through page layouts showing headlines, articles and photos, opening more than a century of Maryland campus history to readers worldwide.

Becoming The Diamondback

The paper became known as The Diamondback in 1921; the first issue under the new name was published on June 9, 1921. The name honored a local reptile, the diamondback terrapin, which became the university's official school mascot in 1933. The paper's earlier names, eight student publications in total between 1910 and 1921, are all searchable in the university's digital archive, allowing researchers to trace the evolution of campus journalism at Maryland through keyword, name, decade and date searches. The Diamondback name has now been in continuous use for more than a century, outlasting every predecessor title.

Independence since 1971

The paper's current independent status was originally intended as punishment. The Board of Regents cut off student funding after The Diamondback's actions in 1971, when it ran two pages blank in protest of campus censorship and placed tombstones on its editorial page in protest of the Vietnam War. During the Vietnam era, The Diamondback covered the protests and rallies that broke out across campus while university officials attempted to censor the newspaper's reporting on controversial stories. Tensions escalated until the newspaper was cut off from university funding, and it has been an independent publication ever since. The newspaper began publishing independently in 1971 with the establishment of Maryland Media, Inc. as its publisher, and the paper has served the University of Maryland community independently ever since.

Maryland Media, Inc.

Maryland Media, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting independent student-operated media at the University of Maryland, College Park. In addition to The Diamondback, it publishes Mitzpeh, which covers the campus's Jewish community, and The Terrapin yearbook. Established in 1971, Maryland Media provides educational experience for students in the editorial and production functions of news media while striving to reflect the diversity of the campus and College Park community. The organization is financially independent of the university, empowering its student-run publications to practice journalism without fear of censorship or interference. Its board oversees the business operations of the publications while students retain editorial control.

The daily print era

For most of its history, The Diamondback was published as a daily print newspaper on weekdays, making it a constant physical presence across the College Park campus. At its height the paper's print circulation exceeded 21,000, with annual advertising revenues of more than $1 million. The paper's offices are located on the third floor of the South Campus Dining Hall, across from the WMUC-FM radio station and the university's Residence Hall Association office, placing the newsroom at the heart of student life. As advertising revenue declined across the newspaper industry, the paper cut its print edition from five days a week to four, and then to one, with the weekly edition typically running about eight pages and a print circulation of 14,000.

The move to online-only

On September 30, 2019, The Diamondback announced that it would discontinue its weekly print edition and publish online only, a change that took effect in March 2020. The decision came 110 years after the paper was first founded and 47 years after it became financially independent in 1971. In announcing the change, the board of Maryland Media explained that newspapers were no longer the most effective way to reach many readers at once and that readers did not find print the most convenient way to get the news. Editor-in-chief Leah Brennan said the change would meet the overwhelming majority of readers where they were. The paper now publishes a daily digital edition during the school year, with editors and the Maryland Media board expressing optimism about the transition to online journalism.

Coverage and sections

The Diamondback covers both on- and off-campus news, with particular attention to the College Park region and Prince George's County local government, as well as University of Maryland athletics and student life. Its coverage expands to Annapolis when the state legislature is in session. The paper's sections include News, Opinion — home to the paper's editorials, op-eds, letters to the editor and editorial cartoons — and Diversions, the entertainment section containing reviews of movies and music as well as coverage of concerts and plays around the College Park region. Through investigative reporting and daily coverage, the paper has held the university accountable through periods of controversy, including the deaths of multiple students, maintaining its role as a check on university administration.

A voice for accountability

As an independent, student-run newspaper, The Diamondback is positioned to criticize the university without fear of censorship. The paper's history during the Vietnam War established a tradition of confronting authority that has persisted through the decades. Student journalists at the paper have reported on controversial stories involving university policies and campus life, and the ability of students to voice ideas and concerns about university policies has been defended as both a constitutional right and an integral part of holding the university accountable. The paper's independence, born of conflict with the administration, has become its defining editorial asset.

Sister publications under Maryland Media

Beyond The Diamondback, Maryland Media, Inc. supports additional student-run publications that broaden the scope of independent student media at the University of Maryland. Mitzpeh covers the campus's Jewish community, providing dedicated reporting and commentary for Jewish students at College Park, while The Terrapin serves as the university's student yearbook. Both publications operate under the same nonprofit umbrella that has published The Diamondback since 1971, sharing the organization's commitment to editorial independence and to providing educational experience for students in the editorial and production functions of news media. Together, the three publications reflect the diversity of the campus and College Park community, and each benefits from the financial independence of Maryland Media, which receives no university funding and is sustained by advertising and donor support. The organization's LinkedIn profile describes The Diamondback as a nonprofit news operation with between fifty-one and two hundred people involved, underscoring the scale of the student enterprise behind the paper's daily digital output.

Preserving a century of history

The digitization of The Diamondback's archives represents one of the most significant preservation efforts for any student newspaper in the country. The University Libraries' project, drawing on expertise developed through the digitization of more than 200,000 pages of historic Maryland newspapers funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, has made issues from 1910 to 1971 freely searchable. A second fundraising campaign was launched to complete the digitization of issues published after 1971. For retired University Archivist Anne Turkos, who advocated for the database for years and spearheaded the fundraising campaign, the archive was described as a dream come true, ending an era when researchers had to visit campus and locate articles in giant bound volumes or on microfilm.