The Diamondback

The Diamondback is the award-winning independent student newspaper of the University of Maryland, College Park. It was founded in 1910 as The Triangle and renamed in 1921 in honor of a local reptile, the Diamondback terrapin (the terrapin became the official school mascot in 1933). Until March 2020, the print edition of the newspaper was published once a week on Monday, with a print circulation of 8,000,[1] down from a high of more than 21,000, and what used to be annual advertising revenues of more than $1 million. It was usually twelve to sixteen pages.[2] The Diamondback now publishes a daily digital-only edition during the school year which can be found at dbknews.com.[3]

The Diamondback
The front page of The Diamondback on Sept. 24, 2012
TypeWeekly newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)Maryland Media, Inc.
Founded1909
LanguageEnglish
HeadquartersCollege Park, Maryland, United States
Circulation9,000
Websitedbknews.com

The paper's current independent status was originally intended as punishment—the Board of Regents cut off student funding after The Diamondback's actions in 1971, when it ran two pages blank in protest of campus censorship and placed tombstones on its editorial page in protest of the Vietnam War.[4]

The paper's offices are located on the third floor of the South Campus Dining Hall, across from the WMUC-FM radio station and the University of Maryland's Residence Hall Association office. [5]

Sections

The Diamondback is split into four sections:

  • News - The news section covers both on- and off-campus news, specifically in the region of College Park, Maryland, but also expands coverage to Annapolis, Maryland, when the state's legislature is in session.
  • Opinion - The editorial section contains The Diamondback's editorial, op-eds and letters to the editor, and editorial cartoons.
  • Diversions - The entertainment section contains reviews of movies and music, as well as concerts and plays around the College Park region.
  • Sports - The sports section covers University of Maryland athletics, including men's basketball and football. This section often has a combination of news and opinion articles.

Awards

The Diamondback has received many awards throughout its history for categories including photography, news writing and cartoons, especially from the Society of Professional Journalists.

For the 2012-2013, 2015 and 2016 school years, The Diamondback was named the Best All-Around Daily Student Newspaper in Region 2 of the Society of Professional Journalists.[6]

For the 2010-2011 school year, The Diamondback received a first-place Mark of Excellence award for its region, and saw several of its journalists go on to win individual national awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, including for column writing and sports reporting. [7][8]

For the 2008-2009 school year, The Diamondback placed second in the national Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards ranking of daily student newspapers. It received the first-place award for its region.[9]

For the 2005-2006 school year, The Diamondback received a Mark of Excellence award, placing 3rd nationally for Best All-Around Daily Student Newspaper and placing first in its region in the same category.

Alumni

Journalists

Notable journalists who worked at The Diamondback include:

Photojournalists

Cartoonists
  • Frank Cho's strip Liberty Meadows started as a cartoon strip called University2 for The Diamondback.
  • Aaron McGruder's comic strip The Boondocks first premiered in The Diamondback in 1997. The comic has since gone on to widespread success in syndication, and has its own television show.
  • Jeff Kinney's comic strip Igdoof ran in The Diamondback in the early 1990s. He writes and illustrates the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series and web comic.
gollark: Mostly it's used in stuff which just *happens* to need water for production, not sold in bottles.
gollark: I mostly support just giving people money directly instead of having the government/whatever try and work out and possibly fail to guess exactly what people need.
gollark: I mean, water is used in VAST quantities (off the top of my head mostly) in industry.
gollark: In any quantity? Hmm.
gollark: "my political position obvious and right, all others wrong and could only be invented by evil people"

References
  1. "Diamondback Final Print Edition". The Diamondback Online. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
  2. Amicus brief in Rossignol v. Voorhaar
  3. "Diamondback Newsroom Staff". The Diamondback Online. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
  4. Censoring the College Press
  6. Merrill.umd/edu
  9. Spj.org
  10. Baltimore Sun
  11. Rosen, Jill (April 2004). "Who Knows Jack?". American Journalism Review. Retrieved October 4, 2015.
  12. Petranek, Stephen. "Stephen L. Petranek | LinkedIn". Linkedin. Retrieved March 30, 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.