Ivy League Newspapers

“The Yale Daily News” is the oldest daily college newspaper.

As Ivy Coach is often quoted in Ivy League newspapers, we figured we’d offer our readers some history of the student-run newspapers of the eight Ivy League colleges. Because we know you woke up wondering — I wonder which one has been around the longest. Ok, maybe you didn’t wake up with this burning question on your mind. But we’ll offer you insight anyway because why not.

“The Dartmouth” is “America’s oldest college newspaper,” previously published as “Dartmouth Gazette” and “The Dartmouth Daily.” Indeed that’s the newspaper’s tagline. The student-run publication of Dartmouth College was founded in 1799. “The Daily Pennsylvanian,” the newspaper of the University of Pennsylvania, was founded in 1885 — or 86 years after the birth of Dartmouth’s newspaper. “The Harvard Crimson,” the newspaper of Harvard University and the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was founded in 1873. Brown’s newspaper, “The Brown Daily Herald,” has been around since 1891. “The Daily Princetonian,” the newspaper of Princeton University, was founded in 1876 and started running daily beginning in 1892.

In the first issue of “Dartmouth Gazette,” someone named ‘Icarus’ published a short story and poem. ‘Icarus’ turned out to be none other than the great American diplomat Daniel Webster.

“The Columbia Daily Spectator” has been around since 1877 at Columbia University. It’s been independent since 1961. Hey, it took some time for Columbia’s student journalists to throw a tea party. Ok, bad joke. We know. “The Cornell Daily Sun,” the newspaper of Cornell University, was previously called “The Cornell Sun” and it was founded in 1880 by William Ballard Hoyt — apparently to compete against a weekly publication known as “Cornell Era,” which was founded in 1868.

“The Yale Daily News,” the newspaper of Yale University, has been around since January 28, 1878. The newspaper’s tagline is “The oldest college daily.” If your eyebrows are now raised because you thought Dartmouth College’s newspaper was the oldest college newspaper, you’re not wrong. But Dartmouth’s newspaper back then wasn’t published on a daily basis. Hence both Dartmouth and Yale’s newspaper taglines are not contradictory. They’re both correct.

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