The Spartan Daily

The Spartan Daily

Dwight Bentel Hall, School of Journalism at San Jose State University
Type	Student Newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
School	San José State University
Founder(s)	Dwight Bentel
Founded	1934; 90 years ago (1934)
Language	English
Headquarters	San Jose, California
Circulation	6,000[1]
Website	https://sjsunews.com/
Free online archives	https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartan_daily/

The Spartan Daily is a not-for-profit, independent student newspaper serving San José State University and the surrounding Bay Area in San Jose, California.

As of 2023, The Spartan Daily publishes in print three times a week, and online daily when the university is in session (excluding holidays). It serves a student population of over 35,000 and a faculty and staff population of over 3,000. It is named for the university's mascot, the Spartan.

History

The first student newspaper at San Jose State was The Normal Times, which was a weekly paper published from October 1909 through June 1920. In September 1921 the student newspaper relaunched under the name The College Times though it soon changed its name to the State Teachers College Times in November 1921. This name would remain through the 1925–1926 academic year, before being changed to the State College Times before the start of the 1926–1927 academic year.^[2]

Desiring to transition from a weekly paper to a daily paper, students, under the guidance of Dwight Bentel, launched The Spartan Daily in April 1934.^[3][4] For Bentel's help in creating the paper, as well as his contributions to founding the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at San Jose State, the building which both houses the school and headquarters The Spartan Daily was named in his honor in 1982.^[5]

Publications

The Spartan Daily also has separate publications on specialized topics, these include:

• The Spear, which provides coverage of the campus' athletic and club sports programs.^[6]
• Update News, which is a weekly, student-produced television newscast that airs every weekend on KICU, Channel 36 in San Jose. The newscast is produced by San Jose State broadcast journalism students, and has aired in the Bay Area since 1982. The newscast previously aired on educational station KTEH. Update News also features a daily live webcast.^[7]
• Equal Time is a news magazine show produced by the San Jose State School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Each half-hour episode examines a different issue in depth, and ends with a roundtable discussion featuring professors and other experts in search of solutions. Equal Time airs Saturday afternoons on KQED+ (Channel 54 or Comcast Channel 10) in the Bay Area.^[8]

Awards and notable alumni

Since 2015, The Spartan Daily has won 30 national journalism awards and 120 state awards. As of 2023, eight San Jose State journalist alumni have won Pulitzer Prizes,^[9] including:

• Steve Starr (1970)^[10]
• Kim Komenich (1987)^[11]
• Anacleto Rapping (1996)^[12]
• David Willman (2001)^[13]
• Marcio Sanchez (2021)^[14]

References

1. "Spartan Daily Negatives Collection". oac.cdlib.org. Retrieved 2023-10-19.
2. "Spartan Daily | San Jose State University Research | SJSU ScholarWorks". scholarworks.sjsu.edu. Retrieved 2023-10-19.
3. Group, Mike Rosenberg | Bay Area News (2012-05-16). "Dwight Bentel, founder of San Jose State University journalism department, dies at 103". The Mercury News. Retrieved 2023-10-19. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
4. "The Spartan Daily". SJSU King Library Digital Collections (Moving image). San José State University Campus Films Collection, San José State University Library Special Collections & Archives. 1987.
5. "Spartan Daily founder Dwight Bentel dies at 103 (UPDATED) « Spartan Daily Spartan Daily". 2014-04-24. Archived from the original on 2014-04-24. Retrieved 2023-10-19.
6. "SJSU News | Learn By Doing/ Excite Your Mind". sjsunews.com. Retrieved 2023-10-19.
7. "SJSU-TV". SJSU-TV. Retrieved 2023-10-19.
8. "About Us". Equal Time. 2012-09-12. Retrieved 2023-10-19.
9. "Spartan Daily Establishes Legacy of Award-Winning Journalism | SJSU NewsCenter". blogs.sjsu.edu. Retrieved 2023-10-19.
10. "Spot News Photography". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-10-26.
11. Fischer, Heinz-Dietrich (2000). The Pulitzer Prize Archive Volume 14: Press Photography Awards 1942–1948. K.G. Saur. p. 193. ISBN 3598301847.
12. Goodman, M., "In Conversation with Anacleto Rapping", Strant Magazine, Jul 2015.
13. "The Pulitzer Prizes | Biography". Pulitzer.org. 1956-10-18. Retrieved 2010-08-16.
14. "SJSU Alumnus Marcio Sanchez Wins Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography". SJSU Newsroom. SJSU. 2011. Retrieved November 2, 2021.