The DM celebrates 100 years

When The Daily Mississippian rolls off the press this morning, the student newspaper will officially be 100 years old.

“Well, Happy Birthday, DM,” University of Mississippi Dean of Students Sparky Reardon said. “I think we are a much better university because we have had a student newspaper for the past 100 years.”

Julie Finley Cooper is the only student who served as editor in chief of The DM two consecutive years, from 2001-03. 

“The things I learned there are things I could not have learned in any class,” Cooper said. “The lessons I learned still play out for me today, every day, really.”

Working in newspaper management, which she is still doing today as managing editor of The Natchez Democrat, was something Cooper quickly figured out she wanted to do. And more than anything, Cooper said, working at The DM prepared her for that career.

“Class came second, if not third or fourth — the paper was number one,” she said. “I don’t regret that, I mean, I didn’t do as well in my classes as I had in high school, but I was learning real-life newspaper management in the basement of Farley Hall.”

Being there for students, and not just the students who work there, is one of the great things about The DM, Meek School of Journalism and New Media Dean H.W. Norton said.

“(Students) are the most important element on campus — not faculty, not the buildings and not alumni,” he said. “If they can have a voice and know what is going on on campus, they will be more enthusiastic about the place they are going to school.”

Chancellor Dan Jones said the student newspaper, once known as The Mississippian, now The Daily Mississippian, has served the university well over the past 100 years.

“The DM is an important source of information and provides a healthy mechanism for discussion of issues important to the university,” he said. “As a faithful reader and as chancellor, I am grateful to The DM leadership and staff for their strong efforts to provide a quality daily newspaper. The DM greatly enhances the quality of life for our entire university community.”

Reardon said that he does not always agree with The DM’s stances, but he said the quality of  students’ stories is still there.

“Even though sometimes it is a challenge personally to read articles in The DM, I think it causes us to look at ourselves, as an institution,” he said. “I am very proud to work at a university where we have such an effective professional student newspaper.”

Reardon said that while many students may not realize it, having a free student press is important. 

“You either have free press, or none at all,” he said. “For me, I’m glad we have free press.”

One thing about The DM over the years, Norton said, is that it has produced outstanding professionals and leaders. Many pursued journalism careers, but others did not, including former Mississippi Gov. William Winter, who served as editor-in-chief in 1943.

“It has been a place where the leaders on the campus have worked, and gone out to be leaders in the world,” Norton said.

Ole Miss is no stranger to controversial topics, Norton said, and The DM has been at the forefront, including the early ‘50s, when editors urged the leaders of the state to integrate the universities.

“It is clear that they had a pulse of the times and knew it was time to change,” Norton said. “Since then, one year after another, where The Daily Mississippian, and even before it was daily, were at the heart of controversies that were swirling around the campus.

“It is not necessarily that The Mississippian was always on the right side, but, the fact that students were dealing with the issues and having to make the decisions, while having to learn how public decisions are made is important.”

Cooper said she learned many lessons while working at The DM, including leading The DM in coverage of one of the nation’s tragedies, on Sept. 11, 2001.

“I learned that people’s stories need to be told,” she said. “Even if it is a grieving parent, talking about it is sort of like therapy for them.”

For 9-11, the group planned all morning, worked all day getting stories and then put it together that night.

“We were there well after midnight. I will never forget that,” Cooper said. “Certainly, it brought the whole staff together — we could handle anything after that.”

In June, the newspaper celebrated its centennial anniversary with a reunion attended by more than 200 alumni. At the event, more than two dozen former DM editors were interviewed for a documentary that is currently in production.

“We had an opportunity this summer to gather at the Centennial, and we had a dinner with friends from our era,” Reardon said. “It was amazing — it was more than dinner conversation, we reflected on a period; it was a very special time. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.”

In a 159-page souvenir publication titled “100 Years of Mississippian Memories,” reunion co-chair Elizabeth Nichols Shiver noted that when The Mississippian was first published, the university had “no journalism department, no student media center, no offices, staff working from their rooms to produce the first issue October 14, 1911.”

In 1961, The Mississippian became a daily publication under the leadership of editor James L. Robertson, who later became a state Supreme Court justice. Sidna Brower was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize after asking students to stop rioting when James Meredith integrated the university in 1962. 

In the spring of 1968, The Mississippian changed its name to The Daily Mississippian. Charles Overby, recently retired as the CEO of the Freedom Forum, which runs the Newseum in Washington, D.C., was the editor-in-chief during the name change. 

“I remember from the time I was a junior in high school, my goal was to be the editor of The Daily Mississippian,” Overby said during an interview in June. “I think the challenges and the highs and lows of producing a daily newspaper helped prepare me to become a full-time journalist. I loved being the editor. And so when I got out of Ole Miss my next professional goal was to become editor of a daily newspaper.”

Reardon served as editor during the summer of 1970.

“I made a lot of great friends, and I think that part of what I do today in this job, I think is a direct result of having spent lots of hours down at Brady Hall,” Reardon said. “It was a very special time.”

In 1990, the selection process for determining a new editor-in-chief was changed. Before, potential editors were elected in a campus-wide campaign. Since then, editors have been selected by a committee that includes students, faculty and professional journalists. 

In 2004, The DM moved from Farley Hall to Bishop Hall. It is part of the S. Gale Denley Student Media Center, named after the longtime general manager of The DM and the Student Media Center. 

Norton said college campuses are one place where print newspapers are still thriving with high readership.

“Student newspapers are having problems like other newspapers, but where they are well run, the students still love to pick them up,” he said. “I have to say, this is the best newspaper I’ve seen in a long time, this one this fall.”

Avé Mayeux contributed reporting.