BG News Alumni Society

As time progressed and the college and its students and faculty grew more sophisticated, so did the articles in the campus newspaper. And now, 85 years later, The BG News -- its successor, its great grandson, if you will -- thrives as an award-winning, independent student voice at Bowling Green State University that is published five days a week.

"Though the look and feel of the newspaper has changed over the years, and most recently with online publishing expanded our thinking and capabilities as a news organization, our core responsibility has not changed, "says Bob Bortel, director of student publications and BG News adviser. "And that is to be a forum for news and issues from a student perspective, free to explore and present what the editors deem important to the campus community. Our masthead states 'A daily independent student press' and that is central to our purpose at BGSU."

The Early Years
The newspaper remained a weekly publication through the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. In 1924, local advertising, which previously had not been included in the newspaper, became a source of financial support. For a brief time in 1930, The Bee Gee News adopted a magazine-style format, with a front-cover design replacing the usual front page of news stories. An issue commemorating the silver anniversary of the University included a front-page story apology to advertisers when the staff believed they had too many ads and had "to omit them in order to leave sufficient room for news stories."

In 1939, The Bee Gee News sponsored a contest to select a new name for the paper, but from Sept. 20 until Oct. 11, it was published using a question mark for the name. Finally, a winning name was chosen, and The Bee Gee News became The Falconian from Oct. 25 until Nov. 22, 1939. It was at that point when unhappy editors changed the name back to the Bee Gee News.

In 1942, The Bee Gee News was rated one of the best college papers in the nation by the Associated Collegiate Press and, in 1947, was considered third-best among weekly papers by the Ohio College Newspaper Association. The dominant story of the early 1940s, of course, was World War II, and coupons in the newspaper offered the opportunity to send the paper to a serviceman overseas for $1 per year. Lists of names and addresses appeared in the paper, and readers were encouraged to write to servicemen.

The 1950s brought change when Jesse J. Currier, a professor in the Journalism Department, suggested switching the name of the paper from The Bee Gee News to The BG News. The paper changed its nameplate to The BG News in August 1951, never to change again. The newspaper began publishing twice a week in 1951 -- on Tuesdays and Fridays -- and was dominated by sports coverage and fraternity and sorority news.

Many major stories in the late 1950s centered on construction of the University Union. The opening of the Union in 1958 was delayed by a fire that destroyed a section of the building. The BG News eventually published a special eight-page insert focusing on the dedication of the Union. At a time when BGSU enrollment hovered around 4,000 students, there was little breaking news, and Homecoming and Greek news dominated the front page. The administration was also known to try to censor information from appearing in The BG News.

The News highlighted coverage of U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy's visit to the Bowling Green campus in 1960 while on the presidential campaign trail and, by 1963, the newspaper had begun printing four times a week.

The Vietnam/Watergate Era
National events of race riots, the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal dominated the headlines of Bowling Green's campus newspaper in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A front-page photo in 1968 showed students gathered around a bulletin board outside the newsroom reading posted wire stories about the Hanoi peace talks.

Thousands attended demonstrations on the steps of Williams Hall, where protestors marched to University President William Jerome's home demanding that the University take a stand against the Vietnam conflict. In May 1968, a demonstration of ROTC maneuvers turned violent when protestors carrying crosses attempted to disrupt the ceremony. And by the 1970s, Greek stories were absent from the front page and the flavor of the newspaper had turned much more political.

Throughout the 1970s, The BG News, like many campus newspapers, were at odds with the University administration over controversial issues, but there was no attempt by the BGSU administration to review editorials or control what was printed.

And today's BG News editorial stance remains the same: That, in addition to serving as a journalism lab for students, the paper is an important news source, independently produced for the University and Bowling Green communities.

Then-BGSU President Hollis Moore may have said it best in the 1970s: "The issue of editorial independence for The BG News is not something you can address in a partial way. If you respect the function of the paper as a community news link as well as a vehicle for providing newspaper opportunities for students, then you can't tell students they can do part of the job on their own (the news ... the advertising) but they had to clear part of it (the editorials) with the administration."

One of the most controversial news stories to ever hit the pages of The News broke in March 1980 when stolen exams were found during a search of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house. All members were evicted from the house, and the "exam scam" incident resulted in seven arrests and 30 Pikes losing their active status in the fraternity.

In 2004, The BG News broke the story that university President Sidney Ribeau had given raises to five of his office staff that were significantly higher than any other classified staff raises and were done outside the normal review process. Ribeau later rescinded the raises.

But The News has not always enjoyed editorial independence. There were times when previous administrations took a stronger role in monitoring the contents of the paper. The result was less controversy in the paper and more controversy about it. In the campus protests of the late 1940s to the early 1960s, the lack of editorial independence in The BG News was among student grievances.

Financial Independence and Creation of Student Publications
The 1980s brought financial independence, and major changes in the organizational structure of The BG News and the way the newspaper is funded. In 1978, a campus committee cut The BG News' funding allocations in half, temporarily crippling the newspaper financially for the next two years. Journalism faculty member John Huffman chaired an ad-hoc committee that created the model for the Student Publications Board, and Hollis Moore accepted the recommendation and approved two years of general fee seed money for the newspaper.

In 1980, the BGSU administration created the University Board of Student Publications and mandated that The BG News become a financially self-sufficient operation, in part to keep the administration from influencing news coverage. Before that, the newspaper received about a quarter of its operating income from the University's general fee fund (student general fee money). Also, advising duties for The News were transferred to the newly created position of director of student publications, who served as budget administrator and adviser to nearly all student print media on campus.

Now, The BG News, part of the Office of Student Publications and administratively in the Division of Student Affairs, is a virtually self-funded newspaper, thanks to successful growth of advertising sales. The university provides only for the utilities and space in West Hall where the newspaper now resides, and part of the salary of the director of student publications. All other salaries, equipment and production costs of the newspaper are funded through advertising sales.

The newspaper today operates on a budget that exceeds more than half a million dollars, with a student payroll exceeding $125,000; full-time staff of more than $175,000; and a yearly printing bill of $150,000.

The current staff includes 50 students working in various editorial positions in the newsroom; a student sales staff of six under the direction of a full-time advertising manager; and a pre-press print production staff of six to eight students also under full-time supervision.

A publications committee has been in existence since 1940, but its function was little more than to select the editor of The BG News and The Key, the university yearbook. The University Board of Student Publications -- which consists of five faculty members, five students, one administrator and two outside media professionals -- has broad oversight responsibility of the overall BGSU student publication operations, including policy oversight and appointing editors. The director of student publications and his staff direct the day-to-day operations of Student Publications, which today includes The BG News,The Gavel,The Key, The Obsidian, and UniGraphics, a full-service graphic design/desktop publishing service bureau serving the entire university.

A New Home in West Hall
In October, 1985, The BG News moved from the old but nostalgic surroundings of 106 University Hall into the renovated, modern facilities in West Hall, oddly enough a short walk to the Administration Building and home to upper-level administrators the staff has often clashed with. At a cost of $4.3 million, West Hall was virtually gutted and rebuilt to provide the new School of Mass Communication (which included journalism), the Office of Student Publications and The BG News with a new home where it remains today.

The only piece of furniture known to have made the trip from University Hall to West Hall was the legendary, horseshoe-shaped BG News copy desk. Copy editors sat on the inside of the desk -- known as "the slot" -- and passed out work to copy readers who sat around the outside "rim." "The slot" was permanently retired from the newsroom for a more contemporary and spacious office during the summer of 2003.

Expansion and an Award-Winning Newspaper
A high point in The BG News' history came in 1989 when the paper was named the Nation's Best College Daily by the Society of Professional Journalists in its Mark Of Excellence competition. And the newspaper experienced a major transformation in technology and format in the 1990s. The BG News introduced digital photography and photo scanning in the early 1990s and, in 1996, it began electronically paginating news pages. The paper is now 100 percent digital with photography. With the cut-and-paste process a thing of the past, The BG News is currently working with its fourth generation of computer equipment -- a Macintosh-based system using InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator as main programs in design and digital presentation, with a proprietary news management system by Baseview, providing the backbone for overall copy flow and information management.

In 1993, The News increased its frequency to five days a week by introducing a new Monday tabloid paper highlighting weekend sports coverage. One year later, the Monday tab was replaced by a regular Monday broadsheet edition of The BG News.

In 2000, The BG News was redesigned with the help of a consultant from the Chicago Sun-Times. The result has been several national awards for the newspaper. In 2000, The BG News was the only collegiate newspaper among 15 honored internationally by the Society of News Design for Best Redesigned Newspaper Award. The News was also honored as the top daily newspaper in Region 4 of the Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence competition.

In the spring of 2002, The BG News earned a third-place award for best overall college newspaper design in a national contest sponsored by the Society of News Design and the University of Missouri at Columbia. And several staff designers also won first-place awards in the same competition.

The BG News won the 2006 Mark of Excellence Award as the top college daily in Region 4 judging by the Society of Professional Journalists. It was the second consecutive year and third time in four years that the paper had won the award. Region 4 includes Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania.

Over the years, The BG News trophy case has also included several other major awards, including All-American and Five Star rankings from the Associated Collegiate Press -- an award earned by less than 5 percent of college newspapers.

These awards continue the tradition of excellence that characterizes The BG News -- 85 years after publishing its first issue.

(Editor's note: Information for this story was excerpted from articles published in the former alumni publications At Bowling Green and At BG, The BG News, and an interview with Robert Bortel, current adviser of The BG News and director of student publications).