Varsity (Cambridge)
Encyclopedia
Varsity is the oldest of Cambridge University
's main student newspapers
. It has been published continuously since 1947, and is one of only three fully independent student newspapers in the UK. It appears every Friday around Cambridge. In November 2009, the paper won six prizes at the Guardian Student Media Awards
, was nominated for a further two, and former editor Patrick Kingsley was named Student Journalist of the Year.
A variety of attempts to revive Varsity led to the paper resurfacing periodically over the following decade, but it was not until 1947 that the paper was re-established permanently in its current form. Harry Newman Jr (1921–2001), a graduate from Harvard
and the Harvard Business School
, then studying for a postgraduate degree at St John's College, Cambridge, decided that Cambridge needed a proper American-style campus newspaper modeled on the Crimson
. 'Varsity', the name of an obsolete publication, was used due to a post-war ration on newsprint. Only publications that had existed before the War could be allocated paper. On 19 April 1947 Varsity reappeared again, with the first issue headlining the coming visit of the then Princess Elizabeth
to the University. Unfortunately the visit never took place.
In a letter published in Varsity at the end of the year 1971-2, Harry Newman wrote, "Varsity began over a bottle of sherry in John's, matured over a bottle of port in Caius and blossomed with a firkin of ale over the Victoria Cinema, where we pecked out the first issue on trestle tables (without chairs).
"Several of us -- Bill Watson (Professor of Social Anthropology), David Widdicombe (distinguished Q.C.), John Noonan (American Professor of Canon Law), Dave Reece (Canadian Diplomat), Bill Howell (prominent architect), and Geoffrey Neame, among others -- felt that what the University needed, in addition to its latest organisation, Y.A.S. (Yet Another Society), was an American-style college newspaper. ... It was truly an international effort, British (all three), Canadian, American, Hungarian, and Indian."
Geoffrey Neame, "a leading light among the Nightclimbers of Cambridge and the Gentlemen of Caius", was the first post-1947 layout editor. The first Managing Editor was the Scotsman "Wee Willie Watson", a fighter pilot. The second Editor (after Newman) was David Widdicombe, a Queens' student who was also Chairman of the Labour Club.
Varsity's headquarters in 1947 was above the Scotch Hoose, "a restaurant at the corner of the Market and Market Street". At first, 5,000 copies were printed.
In the 1950s, Varsity's offices were in a former shop in St. Edwards Passage, next door to the Arts Theatre.
In 1955, a one-off Oxford edition of the paper was produced by the then editor Michael Winner
. Since then the paper has concentrated on the Cambridge audience.
In 1956, the current staff, worried about debts, questioned Varsity's legal status. Solicitors were consulted, who advised that any debts arising from its considerable turnover (advertising income, printing costs etc.) or damages awarded for libel etc. would be the personal responsibility of the current Editor. "Varsity" was promptly converted into a limited liability company
- "Varsity Publications Ltd", with a share capital of £100. 50% of the shares were taken by the printers, 20% by the Don who was the senior Treasurer and the rest, at £1 per head, by the current staff.
In the mid-1970s, Varsity merged with the radical campaigning student paper Stop Press
. Thereafter, it was known as Stop Press with Varsity for several years, before reverting to its original title in the late 1980s.
news presenters Jeremy Paxman
and David Frost
, film director Michael Winner
, the late television presenter Richard Whiteley
, Financial Times
editor Andrew Gowers
, novelist Robert Harris
, novelist and biographer Graham Lord
, historian Jonathan Spence
, Factory Records
founder Tony Wilson
and BBC1's EastEnders
executive producer Matthew Robinson. International Herald Tribune
fashion writer and author Suzy Menkes
was the newspaper's first female editor.
Some of Sylvia Plath
's earliest poems and J. G. Ballard
's first published story were written for the paper. Plath also posed in a bathing suit for an article she wrote about summer fashion-wear for the ladies. Meanwhile, comic Peter Cook
met his first wife while posing for a Varsity May Ball
photo shoot.
The paper has also launched the careers of many news journalists, including in recent times Observer
Political Editor Gaby Hinsliff, Guardian
New York correspondent Oliver Burkeman
, Guardian
music critic Alexis Petridis
, author and columnist Iain Hollingshead
, Independent
News Editor Oly Duff and Foreign News Editor Archie Bland and columnist Amol Rajan, the paper's New York business correspondent Stephen Foley and Independent
columnist Johann Hari
. Controversial BBC
and Evening Standard
reporter Andrew Gilligan
, later famed for a row with 10 Downing Street, was once a news editor. Other notable contributors who have had later success in other fields include Michael Frayn
, Germaine Greer
, Clive James
, Gavin Lyall
and even the Prince of Wales
.
Stories first revealed in Varsity have often gone on to receive coverage in the UK's national press. In recent years reports to capture wider attention have included the leak of the name of Cambridge's latest vice-Chancellor, news about student protests concerning higher education funding, and a host of lighter reports about undergraduate excesses.
Other stories have had a more lasting significance. In May 1953, Varsity was only the third newspaper in the world to carry a report on James Watson
and Francis Crick
's discovery of the structure of DNA, after The News Chronicle
and The New York Times.
The discovery was made in Cambridge on February 28, 1953; the first Watson/Crick paper appeared in Nature
on April 25, 1953. Sir Lawrence Bragg, the director of the Cavendish Laboratory
, where Watson and Crick worked, gave a talk at Guys Hospital Medical School in London on Thursday, May 14, 1953 which resulted in an article by Ritchie Calder in The News Chronicle
of London, on Friday, May 15, 1953, entitled "Why You Are You. Nearer Secret of Life." The news reached readers of The New York Times
the next day; Victor K. McElheny, in researching his biography, "Watson and DNA: Making a Scientific Revolution", found a clipping of a six-paragraph New York Times article written from London and dated May 16, 1953 with the headline "Form of 'Life Unit' in Cell Is Scanned." The article only ran in an early edition and was then pulled to make space for news deemed more important. Varsity ran its own 130-word front-page article on the discovery on Saturday, May 30, 1953 under the headline "X-Ray Discovery".
. She was first noticed by literary agencies after her short story Private Tutor appeared in the 1997 collection.
Advertising in Varsity has traditionally been seen as highly useful by graduate recruiters hoping to attract Cambridge students. As a result the newspaper is able to distribute free copies to members of the university without relying on student union funding and it was the first student newspaper in the UK to produce a colour section. Varsitys management and funding structure means that it is independent from both the University and Cambridge University Students' Union
. In this respect it is unlike the vast majority of similar publications in other UK universities. The only other student newspapers to operate similarly are Oxford
's Cherwell and The Saint
of the University of St Andrews
.
Unlike most student newspapers, the design of the newspaper is allowed to change radically with the arrival of new student editors.
, and were nominated for a further two. Patrick Kingsley was named Student Journalist of the Year; Michael Stothard won in the Best Reporter category; Zing Tsjeng was the Best Feature Writer; Ben Riley-Smith was Best Sports Reporter; while Charlotte Runcie was awarded Best Columnist, with Rob Peal runner-up.
For several consecutive years in the 1950s and 1960s the paper won the award for Britain's best student newspaper. (In the mid-1950s it was temporarily banned from entering for the award on grounds that it was "too professional" and other publications should be given a chance to win.) Recently, it was successful in the 2004 Guardian Student Media Awards where it won the prize for best columnist (Archie Bland) and came runner-up in best sports writer category (Sam Richardson). In 2005 Varsity writer Sam Richardson won the Guardian's Student Diversity Writer of the Year award. In 2006, Sophie Pickford was the runner-up for best sports writer of the year.
In 2007, Varsity won the Guardian Student Media Awards' Student Publication Design of the Year.
The Lent term editor also edits a single edition at the start of Easter term, and a separate editor controls a special edition May Week issue (or, in some years, daily May Week issues) at the end of the academic year.
The current Business Manager and Company Secretary is Michael Derringer.
Recent Business Managers:
Varsity also has a Board of Directors made up of University academics, long-term associates of the newspaper and student members. The current Chairman is Dr Mike Franklin.
in the former Godwin Laboratory. Previously, Varsity was based at 11–12 Trumpington Street
for over 16 years. The newspaper's move from this 'temporary' home to the new offices occurred in August 2007.
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
's main student newspapers
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
. It has been published continuously since 1947, and is one of only three fully independent student newspapers in the UK. It appears every Friday around Cambridge. In November 2009, the paper won six prizes at the Guardian Student Media Awards
Guardian Student Media Awards
The Guardian Student Media Awards are an annual UK-wide student journalism competition run by The Guardian newspaper.-History:Since 1947, The National Union of Students have run a student journalism competition of some kind. In 1978, The Guardian joined forces with the NUS for the inaugural...
, was nominated for a further two, and former editor Patrick Kingsley was named Student Journalist of the Year.
History
Varsity is one of Britain's oldest student newspapers. Its first edition was published in 1931 as Varsity: the Cambridge University Illustrated (later The Varsity Weekly, and then the Cambridge Varsity Post). However, the first few years saw Varsity get off to a shaky start. In 1932 controversy about some of the stories resulted in the editor being challenged to a duel, and the following year the paper went bankrupt with losses of £100.A variety of attempts to revive Varsity led to the paper resurfacing periodically over the following decade, but it was not until 1947 that the paper was re-established permanently in its current form. Harry Newman Jr (1921–2001), a graduate from Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and the Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...
, then studying for a postgraduate degree at St John's College, Cambridge, decided that Cambridge needed a proper American-style campus newspaper modeled on the Crimson
The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson, the daily student newspaper of Harvard University, was founded in 1873. It is the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates...
. 'Varsity', the name of an obsolete publication, was used due to a post-war ration on newsprint. Only publications that had existed before the War could be allocated paper. On 19 April 1947 Varsity reappeared again, with the first issue headlining the coming visit of the then Princess Elizabeth
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
to the University. Unfortunately the visit never took place.
In a letter published in Varsity at the end of the year 1971-2, Harry Newman wrote, "Varsity began over a bottle of sherry in John's, matured over a bottle of port in Caius and blossomed with a firkin of ale over the Victoria Cinema, where we pecked out the first issue on trestle tables (without chairs).
"Several of us -- Bill Watson (Professor of Social Anthropology), David Widdicombe (distinguished Q.C.), John Noonan (American Professor of Canon Law), Dave Reece (Canadian Diplomat), Bill Howell (prominent architect), and Geoffrey Neame, among others -- felt that what the University needed, in addition to its latest organisation, Y.A.S. (Yet Another Society), was an American-style college newspaper. ... It was truly an international effort, British (all three), Canadian, American, Hungarian, and Indian."
Geoffrey Neame, "a leading light among the Nightclimbers of Cambridge and the Gentlemen of Caius", was the first post-1947 layout editor. The first Managing Editor was the Scotsman "Wee Willie Watson", a fighter pilot. The second Editor (after Newman) was David Widdicombe, a Queens' student who was also Chairman of the Labour Club.
Varsity's headquarters in 1947 was above the Scotch Hoose, "a restaurant at the corner of the Market and Market Street". At first, 5,000 copies were printed.
In the 1950s, Varsity's offices were in a former shop in St. Edwards Passage, next door to the Arts Theatre.
In 1955, a one-off Oxford edition of the paper was produced by the then editor Michael Winner
Michael Winner
Michael Robert Winner is a British film director and producer, active in both Europe and the United States, also known as a food critic for the Sunday Times.-Early life and early career :...
. Since then the paper has concentrated on the Cambridge audience.
In 1956, the current staff, worried about debts, questioned Varsity's legal status. Solicitors were consulted, who advised that any debts arising from its considerable turnover (advertising income, printing costs etc.) or damages awarded for libel etc. would be the personal responsibility of the current Editor. "Varsity" was promptly converted into a limited liability company
Limited company
A limited company is a company in which the liability of the members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. And the former of these, a limited company limited by shares, may be...
- "Varsity Publications Ltd", with a share capital of £100. 50% of the shares were taken by the printers, 20% by the Don who was the senior Treasurer and the rest, at £1 per head, by the current staff.
In the mid-1970s, Varsity merged with the radical campaigning student paper Stop Press
Stop press
"Stop Press" is a phrase stemming from the printed news media as an exclamation signifying the discovery of the need to change the content of an issue just before, or during its printing...
. Thereafter, it was known as Stop Press with Varsity for several years, before reverting to its original title in the late 1980s.
Famous contributions
Many of those who wrote for the paper during their student days have since gone on to achieve distinction in later life. Famous ex-editors include the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
news presenters Jeremy Paxman
Jeremy Paxman
Jeremy Dickson Paxman is a British journalist, author and television presenter. He has worked for the BBC since 1977. He is noted for a forthright and abrasive interviewing style, particularly when interrogating politicians...
and David Frost
David Frost
Sir David Frost is a British broadcaster.David Frost may also refer to:*David Frost , South African golfer*David Frost , classical record producer*David Frost *Dave Frost, baseball pitcher...
, film director Michael Winner
Michael Winner
Michael Robert Winner is a British film director and producer, active in both Europe and the United States, also known as a food critic for the Sunday Times.-Early life and early career :...
, the late television presenter Richard Whiteley
Richard Whiteley
John Richard Whiteley, OBE DL , usually known as Richard Whiteley, was an English broadcaster and journalist. He was famous for his twenty-three years as host of Countdown, a letters and numbers arrangement game show broadcast most weekdays on Channel 4...
, Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
editor Andrew Gowers
Andrew Gowers
Andrew Gowers was appointed editor of the Financial Times in October 2001. He resigned from this post in November 2005 citing "strategic differences", following the FT losing a libel case brought by brokerage firm Collins Stewart Tullett Plc....
, novelist Robert Harris
Robert Harris (novelist)
Robert Dennis Harris is an English novelist. He is a former journalist and BBC television reporter.-Early life:Born in Nottingham, Harris spent his childhood in a small rented house on a Nottingham council estate. His ambition to become a writer arose at an early age, from visits to the local...
, novelist and biographer Graham Lord
Graham Lord
Graham Lord is a British biographer and novelist. His biographies include those of Jeffrey Bernard, James Herriot, Dick Francis, Arthur Lowe, David Niven, John Mortimer and Joan Collins...
, historian Jonathan Spence
Jonathan Spence
Jonathan D. Spence is a British-born historian and public intellectual specializing in Chinese history. He was Sterling Professor of History at Yale University from 1993 to 2008. His most famous book is The Search for Modern China, which has become one of the standard texts on the last several...
, Factory Records
Factory Records
Factory Records was a Manchester based British independent record label, started in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus, which featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column, Happy Mondays, Northside and James and...
founder Tony Wilson
Tony Wilson
Anthony Howard Wilson, commonly known as Tony Wilson , was an English record label owner, radio presenter, TV show host, nightclub manager, impresario and journalist for Granada Television and the BBC....
and BBC1's EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
executive producer Matthew Robinson. International Herald Tribune
International Herald Tribune
The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...
fashion writer and author Suzy Menkes
Suzy Menkes
Suzy Menkes, OBE has been head fashion reporter and Editor for the International Herald Tribune since 1988. In that time she has written over 1.7 million words in the paper....
was the newspaper's first female editor.
Some of Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. Born in Massachusetts, she studied at Smith College and Newnham College, Cambridge before receiving acclaim as a professional poet and writer...
's earliest poems and J. G. Ballard
J. G. Ballard
James Graham Ballard was an English novelist, short story writer, and prominent member of the New Wave movement in science fiction...
's first published story were written for the paper. Plath also posed in a bathing suit for an article she wrote about summer fashion-wear for the ladies. Meanwhile, comic Peter Cook
Peter Cook
Peter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...
met his first wife while posing for a Varsity May Ball
May Ball
A May Ball is a ball at the end of the academic year that happens at any one of the colleges of the University of Cambridge. They are formal affairs, requiring evening dress, with ticket prices of around £65 to £200 , with some colleges selling tickets only in pairs...
photo shoot.
The paper has also launched the careers of many news journalists, including in recent times Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
Political Editor Gaby Hinsliff, Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
New York correspondent Oliver Burkeman
Oliver Burkeman
Oliver Burkeman is a journalist for the British newspaper The Guardian, currently writing features for G2. He is a winner of the Foreign Press Association's Young Journalist of the Year award, and has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. He writes a popular weekly column on psychology, This...
, Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
music critic Alexis Petridis
Alexis Petridis
Alexis Petridis is a British journalist, head rock and pop critic for UK newspaper The Guardian, as well as a regular and contributor to the magazine GQ.Petridis began his career writing for Varsity whilst a student at the University of Cambridge...
, author and columnist Iain Hollingshead
Iain Hollingshead
Iain Hollingshead is a British freelance journalist and novelist.Iain writes feature articles for a range of publications, The Daily Telegraph in particular. Until recently, he also wrote a regular column called Loose Ends in Saturday's Guardian...
, Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
News Editor Oly Duff and Foreign News Editor Archie Bland and columnist Amol Rajan, the paper's New York business correspondent Stephen Foley and Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
columnist Johann Hari
Johann Hari
Johann Hari is an award winning British journalist who has been a columnist at The Independent, the The Huffington Post, and contributed to several other publications. In 2011, Hari was accused of plagiarism; he subsequently was suspended from The Independent and surrendered his 2008 Orwell Prize...
. Controversial BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and Evening Standard
Evening Standard
The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
reporter Andrew Gilligan
Andrew Gilligan
Andrew Paul Gilligan is a British journalist best known for a 2003 report on BBC Radio 4's The Today Programme in which he said a British government briefing paper on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction had been 'sexed up', a claim that ultimately led to a public inquiry that criticised Gilligan...
, later famed for a row with 10 Downing Street, was once a news editor. Other notable contributors who have had later success in other fields include Michael Frayn
Michael Frayn
Michael J. Frayn is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce Noises Off and the dramas Copenhagen and Democracy...
, Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
, Clive James
Clive James
Clive James, AM is an Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet and memoirist, best known for his autobiographical series Unreliable Memoirs, for his chat shows and documentaries on British television and for his prolific journalism...
, Gavin Lyall
Gavin Lyall
Gavin Tudor Lyall was an English author of espionage thrillers.-Biography:Lyall was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, as the son of a local accountant, and educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham...
and even the Prince of Wales
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
.
Stories first revealed in Varsity have often gone on to receive coverage in the UK's national press. In recent years reports to capture wider attention have included the leak of the name of Cambridge's latest vice-Chancellor, news about student protests concerning higher education funding, and a host of lighter reports about undergraduate excesses.
Other stories have had a more lasting significance. In May 1953, Varsity was only the third newspaper in the world to carry a report on James Watson
James D. Watson
James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick...
and Francis Crick
Francis Crick
Francis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, and most noted for being one of two co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953, together with James D. Watson...
's discovery of the structure of DNA, after The News Chronicle
News Chronicle
The News Chronicle was a British daily newspaper. It ceased publication on 17 October 1960, being absorbed into the Daily Mail. Its offices were in Bouverie Street, off Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 8DP, England.-Daily Chronicle:...
and The New York Times.
The discovery was made in Cambridge on February 28, 1953; the first Watson/Crick paper appeared in Nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
on April 25, 1953. Sir Lawrence Bragg, the director of the Cavendish Laboratory
Cavendish Laboratory
The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the university's School of Physical Sciences. It was opened in 1874 as a teaching laboratory....
, where Watson and Crick worked, gave a talk at Guys Hospital Medical School in London on Thursday, May 14, 1953 which resulted in an article by Ritchie Calder in The News Chronicle
News Chronicle
The News Chronicle was a British daily newspaper. It ceased publication on 17 October 1960, being absorbed into the Daily Mail. Its offices were in Bouverie Street, off Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 8DP, England.-Daily Chronicle:...
of London, on Friday, May 15, 1953, entitled "Why You Are You. Nearer Secret of Life." The news reached readers of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
the next day; Victor K. McElheny, in researching his biography, "Watson and DNA: Making a Scientific Revolution", found a clipping of a six-paragraph New York Times article written from London and dated May 16, 1953 with the headline "Form of 'Life Unit' in Cell Is Scanned." The article only ran in an early edition and was then pulled to make space for news deemed more important. Varsity ran its own 130-word front-page article on the discovery on Saturday, May 30, 1953 under the headline "X-Ray Discovery".
Organisation
Varsity is published by Varsity Publications Ltd, a not-for-profit company which directly funds The Varsity Trust, a UK registered charity with the principal object of furthering the education of students in journalism. The company also produces a number of other student publications such as BlueSci - a student science magazine - and the The Mays - a collection of short stories and poems by Cambridge and Oxford students. The "Mays" have been published annually since 1992 and are most famous for launching the career of novelist Zadie SmithZadie Smith
Zadie Smith is a British novelist. To date she has written three novels. In 2003, she was included on Granta's list of 20 best young authors...
. She was first noticed by literary agencies after her short story Private Tutor appeared in the 1997 collection.
Advertising in Varsity has traditionally been seen as highly useful by graduate recruiters hoping to attract Cambridge students. As a result the newspaper is able to distribute free copies to members of the university without relying on student union funding and it was the first student newspaper in the UK to produce a colour section. Varsitys management and funding structure means that it is independent from both the University and Cambridge University Students' Union
Cambridge University Students' Union
Cambridge University Students' Union is the university-wide representative body for students at the University of Cambridge, England...
. In this respect it is unlike the vast majority of similar publications in other UK universities. The only other student newspapers to operate similarly are Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
's Cherwell and The Saint
The Saint (UK newspaper)
The Saint is a newspaper written by students at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. It is one of only three such newspapers in the UK to enjoy complete financial and editorial independence, as it is not affiliated with the University or Students' Association in any way...
of the University of St Andrews
University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...
.
Unlike most student newspapers, the design of the newspaper is allowed to change radically with the arrival of new student editors.
Awards
In November 2009, the paper took home over a third of the prizes at the Guardian Student Media AwardsGuardian Student Media Awards
The Guardian Student Media Awards are an annual UK-wide student journalism competition run by The Guardian newspaper.-History:Since 1947, The National Union of Students have run a student journalism competition of some kind. In 1978, The Guardian joined forces with the NUS for the inaugural...
, and were nominated for a further two. Patrick Kingsley was named Student Journalist of the Year; Michael Stothard won in the Best Reporter category; Zing Tsjeng was the Best Feature Writer; Ben Riley-Smith was Best Sports Reporter; while Charlotte Runcie was awarded Best Columnist, with Rob Peal runner-up.
For several consecutive years in the 1950s and 1960s the paper won the award for Britain's best student newspaper. (In the mid-1950s it was temporarily banned from entering for the award on grounds that it was "too professional" and other publications should be given a chance to win.) Recently, it was successful in the 2004 Guardian Student Media Awards where it won the prize for best columnist (Archie Bland) and came runner-up in best sports writer category (Sam Richardson). In 2005 Varsity writer Sam Richardson won the Guardian's Student Diversity Writer of the Year award. In 2006, Sophie Pickford was the runner-up for best sports writer of the year.
In 2007, Varsity won the Guardian Student Media Awards' Student Publication Design of the Year.
Recent editors
- MichaelmasMichaelmas termMichaelmas term is the first academic term of the academic years of the following British and Irish universities:*University of Cambridge*University of Oxford*University of St...
2011: Rhys Treharne and Laurie Martin - LentLent termLent term is the name of the spring academic term at the following British universities:*University of Cambridge*Kings College London*London School of Economics and Political Science*Exeter University*University of Lancaster...
2011: Alice Hancock and Lara Prendergast - Michaelmas 2010: Joe Pitt-Rashid
- May WeekMay WeekMay Week is the name used within the University of Cambridge to refer to a period of time at the end of the academic year. Originally May Week took place in the week during May before year-end exams began. Today, May Week takes place in June. The end of exams is a cause for heavy celebration...
2010: Joel Massey and David Pegg - Lent 2010: Emma Mustich and Laurie Tuffrey
- Michaelmas 2009: Robert Peal and Anna Trench
- May Week 2009: Joel Massey, Emma Mustich and Avantika Chilkoti
- Lent 2009: Hugo Gye and Michael Stothard
- Michaelmas 2008: Patrick Kingsley
- May Week 2008: Anna Trench, Verity Simpson and Dylan Spencer-Davidson
- Lent 2008: Tom Bird and George Grist
- Michaelmas 2007: Lizzie Mitchell and Elliot Ross
- May Week 2007: Jamie Munk and Was Yaqoob
- Lent 2007: Joseph Gosden and Hermione Buckland-Hoby (Issue 1), Joseph Gosden and Natalie Woolman (Issue 2-9)
- Michaelmas 2006: Emily Stokes (Issues 1-2), Mary Bowers and Jonny Ensall (Issue 3-9)
- May Week 2006: Raj Bavishi and Rachel Divall
- Lent 2006: Jon Swaine and Amy Goodwin
- Michaelmas 2005: James Dacre
- May Week 2005: Henry Bowen
- Lent 2005: Amol Rajan
- Michaelmas 2004: Archie Bland
- May Week 2004: Ellen E Jones
- Lent 2004: Reji Vettasseri and Laura-Jane Foley
- Michaelmas 2003: Tom Ebbutt
- May Week 2003: Tori Flower, Dan Cliffe and Emma Charlton
- Lent 2003: Oliver Duff and Luke Layfield
- Michaelmas 2002: Katy Long
- Lent 2002: Rob Sharp
- Michaelmas 2001: Adam Joseph and Julian Blake
- Lent 2001: Tom Royston and Sarah Brealey
- Michaelmas 2000: Ed Hall
- Lent 2000: Jonti Small
- Michaelmas 1999: David Peter
The Lent term editor also edits a single edition at the start of Easter term, and a separate editor controls a special edition May Week issue (or, in some years, daily May Week issues) at the end of the academic year.
Staff
Although Varsity's editors are not paid, they are supported by a full-time Business Manager and Company Secretary (responsible for sourcing advertising to fund the publications, running the office on a day-to-day basis, finance, accounts, tax and administration).The current Business Manager and Company Secretary is Michael Derringer.
Recent Business Managers:
- 2007–pres: Michael Derringer
- 2006–2007: Adam Edelshain
- 2005–2006: Chris Adams
- 2004–2005: Eve Williams
- 2003–2004: Sam Gallagher
- 2002–2003: Tim Nixon
- 2001–2002: Ed Hall
- 2000–2001: Kate Norgrove
- 1999–2000: Rachel Flowerday
- 1998–1999: Suzanne Arnold
- 1997–1998: Madeleine McTernan
- 1996–1997: Emma Horton
- 1995–1996: Dylan Jones
- 1994–1995: David Nicolson
- 1992–1994: Rebecca Thompson
- 1990–1992: Peter Davis
- 1987–1990: Scott Ross
Varsity also has a Board of Directors made up of University academics, long-term associates of the newspaper and student members. The current Chairman is Dr Mike Franklin.
Premises
Varsity is now based at the Old Examination Hall on New Museums SiteNew Museums Site
The New Museums Site is a major site of the University of Cambridge, located in the centre of the city, on Pembroke Street and Free School Lane, sandwiched between Corpus Christi College, Pembroke College and the Lion Yard. Its postcode is CB2 3QH...
in the former Godwin Laboratory. Previously, Varsity was based at 11–12 Trumpington Street
Trumpington Street
Trumpington Street is a major historic street in central Cambridge, England. At the north end it continues as King's Parade where King's College is located...
for over 16 years. The newspaper's move from this 'temporary' home to the new offices occurred in August 2007.