The New Board Looking forward

It was a Wednesday afternoon, the last day of February, 1900, when Walter Ewing Hope 1901 walked into The Daily Princetonian offices for the first time as the paper's 25th Editor-in-Chief. It was quite a different Princeton and quite a different 'Prince.' The paper was a four page spread. It had only been a daily for eight years. The only pictures were in the advertisements that lined the sides of the pages. Inside, subscribers could read about the Princeton Club of Newark's annual dinner. The official notices included the meeting of the Bird Club on Thursday night. And among the stories on the front page was one, near the top, about Professor Woodrow Wilson 1879.

Despite the broad, sweeping divide of time, two world wars and billions of dollars in the University's endowment, Volume XXV of the 'Prince' is not so different from the paper we know today. And Hope's 25th managing board faced many of the same challenges that we will this year as we lead the 'Prince' into its 125th year.

As Hope wrote, the paper's history reflects "almost without exception a steady growth in the character and efficiency" of the organization. Like our counterparts in 1900, "It will be the highest aim of the present board that this distinct advance may be continued, and that at the conclusion of our year's work, the paper may be improved in some one particular, at least."

Like Hope's crew, we take the 'Prince' from a board that has made substantial change to the paper's look. And like our predecessors, "we deem it extremely desirable that one form should be definitely decided upon in the printing of the paper." Under our board, the 'Prince' will not change its face.

There remains work to be done, however. The 'Prince' will always be caught between the stresses of a newspaper and its role as a part of the campus community. College journalism is different. We can model ourselves after our real-world counterparts, but we must recognize our responsibility to the campus.

Our reporting can be better, our writing cleaner. We can try to make our coverage more relevant to the lives of Princetonians, and we can work to earn the trust of our readers. Our staff and our content could better reflect the diversity of the University and better relate to those who are not a part of the mainstream, undergraduate community.

These are difficult aims. Walter Ewing Hope understood that when he promised some of the same things, at the dawn of the twentieth century. He may have said it as best it can be done:

"We would confess our appreciation of the fact that it is very easy to start out with high ideals, and that it is very hard to achieve them. We can only pledge our determination to work hard, and if at the conclusion of our work we may be able to feel that we have benefited the paper or Princeton in any respect, we shall feel amply repaid." — Daniel Stephens 125th Editor-in-Chief