The Transcript: 158 Years of Student Journalism at Ohio Wesleyan

At 159 years old, The Transcript is recognized as the oldest independent college student newspaper in the nation, according to the paper’s official history published online.

The publication began under a different name. It launched as the Western Collegian, founded by Joseph B. Battelle, who went on to become a prominent journalist at the Toledo Blade.

The paper’s name changed three more times over the following century, becoming The College Transcript in 1874, the Ohio Wesleyan Transcript in 1902, and finally The Transcript in 1972.

Women contributed to the paper from its earliest years, though the editor’s role remained male-dominated for decades. That changed in 1918, when Mary M. Morrison stepped in as the paper’s first female editor after her predecessor left to fight in World War I. Twenty-three more women have served as editor since.

The paper’s independence has been tested more than once. During the Vietnam War era, Transcript reporters published investigative stories challenging university authority. That coverage later alienated some alumni and advertisers, and by the mid-1970s it had pushed the paper to the brink of losing its financial independence.

Internal turmoil followed. Between 1984 and 1990, the paper cycled through 10 different editors in six years. In 1991, a dispute led then-editor John Wareck to take the paper off campus. Two rival versions of The Transcript then competed for the same readers until the off-campus version folded two years later.

The paper has changed format almost as often as it has changed hands. It shifted from broadsheet to tabloid in 1944-45 and became a fully digital publication in 2018. Today it prints only a monthly edition for subscribers.

More than 150 editors have led the paper across its history. As one editorial team wrote in October 1868, shortly after passing control to the student body for the first time, the newspaper’s success was now entirely in students’ hands.

Today, that responsibility belongs to Addie Beck, who is in her third year as the paper’s editor. This semester, Beck’s work centers on managing The Transcript’s interns, along with editing and posting articles and running the paper’s social media.

Beck said her favorite part of the job is “getting to hear different stories and perspectives.”

Beck knew about the paper’s history of women editors before taking the role. She called it meaningful to be a woman in journalism and said continuing that legacy has been rewarding.

Source: "Our History," The Transcript, owutranscript.com