INNOVATION IN MEDIA SINCE 1891

On its very first day, Stanford had a newspaper. The opening on October 1891 saw the start of the monthly Palo Alto, whose prospectus noted it was likely “the only college paper ever started simultaneously with the opening of a great university.” The first student body meeting in October 1891 generated a committee on the formation of a university paper, which led to the release of the bi-weekly Sequoia in December 1891. In 1892 a student newspaper entitled the Daily Palo Alto was founded, which eventually became the Stanford Daily.  By 1893, students writing for the Daily could get credit for their published work as part of English 8 (advanced composition).

1910 saw the first Stanford course focused directly on journalism, an English class entitled “News Writing.” Since then, more than 210 people have been listed as journalism or communication faculty at Stanford. The technologies that convey stories have changed over time, from print to broadcast, from Internet to mobile, to the coming world of virtual reality. A constant theme in Stanford journalism classes is the drive to tell stories that hold institutions accountable.

The 2016 McClatchy Symposium celebrated 125 Years of Journalism at Stanford. This companion website allows you to explore the history of journalism at Stanford by decade, see a snapshot of the many different parts of campus today involved in journalism, and take part in charting the future through the development of grand challenges in journalism and computation.