The Brown Daily Herald

The Brown Daily Herald is the student newspaper of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Established in 1866 and published daily since 1891, The Herald is the second-oldest student newspaper among America's college dailies. It is financially and editorially independent of the University, and publishes Monday through Friday during the academic year with additional issues during commencement, summer and orientation. The Herald is managed by a board of trustees comprising two editorial staffers, two business staffers and five Herald alumni. Many alumni of The Brown Daily Herald have gone on to careers in journalism, and several have won Pulitzer Prizes.

World War I

The Herald dropped the word "Daily" in May 1917 when publication was limited to three days a week. In the fall of 1918 the paper became a semi-weekly. On February 1, 1919, daily publication was resumed. During the war, letters from alumni in the service were featured.

World War II

In 1933, the Herald caused a considerable stir by launching an editorial campaign urging students at Brown and at other colleges to sign petitions pledging "not to bear arms except when the country is invaded." An unexpected result was the appointment by the Rhode Island General Assembly of a committee "to investigate the University and to provide penalties for disloyalty to the State and Nation." The response of the students was to raise the number of pledges to 700. The peace drive spread to other colleges and soon an Intercollegiate Disarmament Council was inviting colleges across the country to join the peace movement.]]

In 1968, Beverly Hodgson '70 was acclaimed by the press as the "First Woman Editor of Ivy League Daily" (and coincidentally later married the nephew of Audrey Mishel, the woman editor of the Herald-Record of World War II), and with her managing editor, another woman, Laura Hersh '70, got the Herald out from its new offices at 195 Angell Street. In 1973, The Brown Daily Herald Voluntary Publishing Association, which took in outside printing jobs as well as publishing the Herald, was facing financial difficulties after purchasing typesetting equipment.]] -->

The Herald is organized into four sections:

;1. News: The largest section of the newspaper, "News" covers University news—stories directly affecting the Brown community, from student life, to prominent speakers, to administrative changes—metro news—stories central to Providence and its surrounding cities, ranging from Rhode Island state legislation to government-related student protest, including the goings on of local restaurants and shops—and science and research—stories regarding research of both science and humanities professors as well as general science topics and news on campus. The University News, Metro and Science & Research sections were consolidated into the News section under the 126th Editorial Board.

;2. Arts & Culture : With reports and reviews of on-campus plays, films, and art exhibitions and installations, the Arts & Culture section is a soft news alternative to the typically straightforward and sharp News section. It appears Wednesday and Friday.

;3. Sports: A blend of opinion and match coverage, the Sports section covers intercollegiate competitions, profiles individual players, and offers opinions on professional sports teams and leagues.

;4. Commentary: Comprising letters and op-eds, Commentary appears daily. The editorial page contains a staff editorial, as well as letters to the editor.

Post- magazine

Post- is the Heralds weekly arts and culture magazine, running each Thursday. Its name originally referenced the academic convention of using "post-" as a prefix—as in "post-modernism" and "post-structuralism"—to indicate transcending older modes of thought.

Post- regularly contains film, television, and music reviews, editorials on Brown University's arts scene, and two sex columns called "Sexpertise", one written by a male and one by a female. It also includes colorful commentary on current events.

Herald style

The Herald has a unique style. The paper references academic departments, faculty titles, University campaigns, and organizations abbreviated by acronyms so regularly that it has several case-specific policies for references. The Herald does not employ the serial comma, and favors the word "said" after a quote over "mentioned", "pointed out", etc.

Generally the Herald defaults to the Associated Press style, and therefore keeps numerous copies of the AP Stylebook on hand in its office.

Staff

The Brown Daily Herald employs over 250 voluntary staff members, who work as editors, business managers, reporters, designers, photographers, and artists.

Editorial board

The editorial board manages the Herald and is responsible for its daily production. Members usually serve for the spring of their junior year and the fall of their senior year. The board usually consists of between three and seven positions. In recent years, positions on the board have included Editors-in-Chief, Managing Editors, and Senior Editors.

The Herald is currently under its 136th editorial board. For this reason, the members of the board are collectively referred to as "136" (pronounced "one-thirty-six"). The members of the 136th editorial board are: Editor-in-Chief Cate Latimer '27, Managing Editor Ciara Meyer '27, Managing Editor Elise Haulund '27, Managing Editor Claire Song '27, Senior Editor Hadley Carr '27, Senior Editor Paul Hudes '27, and Senior Editor Max Robinson '26.5.

Office

The Herald's offices are at 88 Benevolent Street, where it shares space with WBRU, Brown University's student-run radio station, which sold its signal in 2017 but continues to broadcast online. The Herald moved there in 2020 from 195 Angell Street, its home for a half-century.

9-Spot

Each Thursday night, the Heralds editorial board hosts a meeting at 9:00 p.m. for all Herald staff, at which staffers offer story ideas and talk about whatever is happening outside of the office. The editors spend much of their time at the Herald office, so they rely on the staff members at 9-spot to contribute a number of story ideas.

Controversies

Accusations of treason, communism

In the early 1930s, the Herald began a pacifist movement called "War Against War". The paper launched an editorial campaign urging Brown students to sign petitions pledging "not to bear arms except when the country is invaded." The movement spread across the country and gained popularity in college papers large and small, which quickly endorsed the Heralds actions. When Rhode Island officials caught wind of the campaign, they immediately grew suspicious and appointed a committee "to investigate the University and to provide penalties for disloyalty to the United States."

The result was a resolution—passed unanimously by the Rhode Island General Assembly—accusing the Herald of treason and associating the paper with the Communist movement. Providence attorney William Needham, himself a graduate of Brown's class of 1915, called the War Against War campaign "a foreign movement of communistic tendencies."

Throughout the process, the Brown administration did not interfere in the legislative action, citing freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

In the end, the committee concluded that the Herald and its campaign were not serious enough threats to warrant suppression or any further action, as there was no connection between the Herald and disloyal organizations. The Washington Post, and ABC News, all ran stories about events on campus.

The furor surrounding the events later died down, with neither party reaching an agreement. The Herald still maintains that its actions were protected under freedom of the press.

A Slavery and Justice Committee was formed a few years after. Though Jim Campbell, chairman of the Committee, was one of the Heralds detractors, and the Committee considered reparations as part of its agenda, there is no official connection between the Committee and the events surrounding the advertisement.

In March 2011, on the 10th anniversary of the reparations advertisement, an ad about the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts for Horowitz' website www.walloflies.org was published in the Herald leading to another campus-wide controversy. Though the controversy quickly died down, graffiti stating "The BDH is racist" remained on sidewalks on and around campus.

Notable Herald alumni

Jacob Appel (Class of 1995): bioethicist
Rebecca Ballhaus (Class of 2013): journalist, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting
Aaron T. Beck (Class of 1942): founder of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania
David Corn (Class of 1981): Washington, D.C. bureau chief for Mother Jones
William A. Dyer (Class of 1924): former general manager and president of the Indianapolis Star
John Ghazvinian (Class of 1996): journalist and petroleum expert
Richard Holbrooke (Class of 1962): former United States Ambassador to the United Nations and former Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Jonathan Karp (Class of 1986): publisher, CEO of Simon & Schuster
Brian Lies (Class of 1985): author and illustrator
Usha Lee McFarling (Class of 1989): winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting
George Musser (Class of 1988): author and editor at Scientific American
Steven Rattner (Class of 1974): Deputy Chairman and Deputy CEO, Lazard Frères & Co.
James Risen (Class of 1977): journalist for The Intercept, winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting
Jeff Shesol (Class of 1991): cartoonist, Thatch; scriptwriter for Bill Clinton
Michael J. Silverstein (Class of 1976): managing director at the Boston Consulting Group
Judith Warner (Class of 1987): author
Craig Waters (Class of 1979): journalist, author, communications director for the Florida Supreme Court
Janet Yellen (Class of 1967): economist, former chair of the Federal Reserve and current Secretary of the Treasury for the United States