The First Student Newspaper

The Cornell Daily Sun - the oldest continuously independent college daily newspaper in the United States - published its first issue on 16th September, 1880. It featured some campus sports reports, some horrible amateur poetry, and even some jokes. It wasn’t until seven years later that a British University caught up with its own equivalent: The Student, at Edinburgh University; although it did have celebrity founder Robert Louis Stevenson up its sleeve. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider the difference between UK and US student journalism; speak to the Sun’s current Editor about how she can possibly do her degree at the same time as running a daily paper; and discover what an Autophone was... Further Reading: • ‘About The Sun’ (The Cornell Daily Sun): https://cornellsun.com/about/ • ‘About The Student’ (Edinburgh Student Newspaper): https://studentnewspaper.org/about • ‘The Cornell Daily Sun: A Documentary: Part 4 (Oliver Bundy, 2007): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIucgSBrWKk For bonus material and to support the show, visit Patreon.com/Retrospectors We'll be back tomorrow! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/Retrospectors This episode first aired in 2021 Love the show? Support us! Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY… … Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content. Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices