The Michigan Daily

Established on September 29, 1890, the newspaper is financially and editorially independent from the university. The Daily is often considered one of the most influential student publications, and is one of the largest student publications in the United States with over 500 student staff members.

The Michigan Daily

Front page view of the November 1, 2019 edition
Type	Student newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
School	University of Michigan
Editor-in-chief	Dana Elobaid, Samantha Rich
Managing editor	Shania Baweja, Abby Schreck
News editor	Riley Hodder, Rachel Mintz
Opinion editor	Zhane Yamin, Lindsey Spencer
Sports editor	Rekha Leonard, Noah Kingsley
Photo editor	Lila Turner, Grace Lahti
Founded	September 29, 1890; 133 years ago (1890-09-29)
Language	English
Headquarters	Ann Arbor, Michigan
Circulation	7,500
ISSN	0745-967X
OCLC number	9651208
Website	michigandaily.com

The Michigan Daily is the only newspaper in Washtenaw County, Michigan. It is published every weekday during the fall and winter terms, and weekly during the spring and summer terms. In 2020, the paper received nearly 6 million website visits, and serves over 50,000 university students and nearly 350,000 residents throughout Washtenaw County.

 

In 1952, the Soviet delegate to the United Nations, F. A. Novikov, singled out the newspaper as emblematic of American warmongering. On April 12, 1955, when the success of Jonas Salk's polio vaccine was announced at the University of Michigan the Daily was the first newspaper to report it. In 1957, the Daily sent a staff member to Little Rock, Arkansas who, pretending to be a student, attended classes on the first day of integration.

Activist and politician Tom Hayden, a former Daily editor in chief who helped found Students for a Democratic Society while editing the Daily, came to personify the publication's editorial philosophy during the 1960s. The paper was the subject of national press coverage when, in 1967, it urged the legalization of marijuana, and again during the Gulf War in 1991, when it called for the reinstatement of the military draft.

The Daily was instrumental in the spread of the Paul is dead urban legend. An October 14, 1969 Daily article by Fred LaBour and John Gray, entitled "McCartney Dead; New Evidence Brought to Light", itemized various "clues", many of them of their own invention. Their "reporting" of McCartney's death is claimed by Beatleologist Andru J. Reeve to have been "the single most significant factor in the breadth of the rumor's spread."

The first female editor-in-chief of The Daily was Harriett Woods, who later served in Missouri State government, ran for the Senate twice in the 1980s nearly beating John Danforth the first time, and led the National Women's Political Caucus through its Year of the Woman in 1992.

On January 28, 2014, The Daily earned national recognition for breaking news that a Michigan football player had been separated from the university for sexual misconduct.

The newspaper is financially and editorially independent of the university's administration and other student groups, but shares a university building with other student publications on 420 Maynard Street, north of the Michigan Union. The Daily acts as Michigan's de facto journalism school, since the university does not have a journalism program or department.

The Daily is managed by a leadership team referred to as the Big Four: the co-editors in chief, the managing editor, and the digital managing editor. Each section has their own managing editor, senior editors, and assistant editors.

The newspaper has 16 different sections and departments: Arts, Audience Engagement, Business, Copy, Culture, Training & Inclusion (CTI), Design, Games, Michigan in Color (MiC), News, Opinion, Photo, Podcast, Sports, The Statement, Video, and Web. News is the largest section, with seven sections that include Academics and Student Government, Administration, Business and Public Safety, Campus Life, City, Government, and Research.

The Michigan Daily is published weekly in broadsheet form during the fall and winter semesters and in tabloid form from May to August. Broadsheets contain a lengthy SportsWednesday Sports section and occasionally an extended, themed issue called The B-Side from the Arts section. They also include a magazine, originally titled Weekend Magazine. In the fall of 2005, the magazine was renamed The Statement, a reference to former Daily editor-in-chief Tom Hayden's Port Huron Statement.

In 2007, renovations to the historic building at 420 Maynard Street were completed, funded entirely by private donations from alumni. To dedicate the renovated building, a reunion of the staffs of The Michigan Daily, the Michiganensian yearbook, and the Gargoyle Humor Magazine was held from October 26 to 28, 2007.

 

Many columnists and editors from The Daily have gone to hold prominent positions in government, journalism, and more, working publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post, Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, and the Chicago Tribune.

Alumni include playwright Arthur Miller, 47th governor of New York and presidential candidate Thomas Dewey, activist Tom Hayden, investment banker Bruce Wasserstein, journalist and physician Sanjay Gupta, former chairman of American Airlines George A. Spater, journalist and game show host Mike Wallace, actor Robert Vaughn, and former lieutenant governor of Missouri Harriett Woods.

Notable journalists and writers include seven Pulitzer Prize winners: Eugene Robinson, Amy Harmon, Lisa Pollak, Ann Marie Lipinski, Daniel Biddle, Stanford Lipsey, and Arthur Miller.

Awards won by The Daily include the 2023 National Pacemaker Award in online media, 22 awards from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2020 and 2021, and 14 awards from the Michigan College Press Association in 2018.