Varsity (Cambridge)
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 moved back to being a weekly publication in Michaelmas 2015, and is published every Friday during term time.
Varsity has received recognition at the now defunct Guardian Student Media Awards.[2]
Famous contributions[edit]
Notable contributors[edit]
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 former BBC news presenters Jeremy Paxman and David Frost, film director Michael Winner, the television presenter Richard Whiteley, former Financial Times editor Andrew Gowers, Independent editor Amol Rajan, i editor Oliver Duff, 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 former Observer Political Editor Gaby Hinsliff, Guardian New York correspondent Oliver Burkeman, Guardian music critic Alexis Petridis, author and columnist Iain Hollingshead, Guardian columnist Archie Bland, Sunday Times columnist Charlotte Ivers,[7] the Independent's New York business correspondent Stephen Foley, The Sunday Times News Review Editor Martin Hemming, as well as former Independent columnist Johann Hari. The BBC and Evening Standard reporter Andrew Gilligan 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, Robert Jenrick[8] and Charles III.
Some notable editors of the Varsity include Andrew Rawnsley (1983–4), Archie Bland (Michaelmas 2004), Amol Rajan (Lent 2005), Laura-Jane Foley (Lent 2004), and James Dacre (Michaelmas 2005).
Recent Editors[9]
Current organisation[edit]
Varsity is published by Varsity Publications Ltd, a not-for-profit company which directly funds The Varsity Trust,[18] a UK registered charity with the principal object of furthering the education of students in journalism.[19] The company also produces a number of other student publications such as 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 Smith.[20] Her work appears in the 1996 and 1997 short story editions. These attracted the attention of a publisher, who offered her a contract for her first novel. Smith decided to contact a literary agent and was taken on by A. P. Watt.[21] Smith returned to guest-edit the anthology in 2001.[22]
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 was the first student newspaper in the UK to produce a colour section. Hence, Varsity's 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 Oxford Blue, as well as 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.
Awards[edit]
20th century[edit]
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.)
21st century[edit]
In the 2001 Guardian Student Media Awards it was shortlisted in two categories for best feature writer (Rend Shakir) and best student critic (Alex Marshall)
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).[23] In 2005 Varsity writer Sam Richardson won the Guardian's Student Diversity Writer of the Year award.[24]
In 2006, Sophie Pickford was the runner-up for best sports writer of the year.[25]
In 2007, Varsity won the Guardian Student Media Awards' Student Publication Design of the Year.[26]
Varsity won six prizes at the Guardian Student Media Awards in November 2009, over a third of the prizes in session, was nominated for a further two, and former editor 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.[27]
Current board and staff[edit]
Varsity has a board of directors made up of university academics, long-term associates of the newspaper, and student members. As of March 2022, the chairman is Mike Franklin.[18]
Varsity's editors are not paid, but their work is 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 Mark Curtis.
Varsity is now based at the Old Examination Hall on the New Museums Site in the former Godwin Laboratory. Previously, Varsity was based at 11–12 Trumpington Street. The newspaper's move from this "temporary" home, to the new offices, occurred in August 2007, after a 16-year tenancy.