A timeline of student journalism at Iowa
The University Reporter begins publishing as a 16-page monthly student newspaper on the University of Iowa campus.
The Vidette, a rival student newspaper, begins publishing.
The University Reporter and The Vidette merge to become The Vidette-Reporter, a tri-weekly campus publication.
The Vidette-Reporter combines with The State University of Iowa Quill, a weekly paper established in 1891, to form The Daily Iowan. It is owned by the student editors.
Stewardship of The Daily Iowan is transferred to a student–faculty board of directors.
Mildred Whitcomb, of Ottumwa, Iowa, is named editor of The Daily Iowan, becoming the newspaper’s first female editor and one of the first women to head an American college daily newspaper. She is shown below seated at the desk to the right in a 1919 photo.
Iowa native George Gallup, creator of the Gallup Poll, attends the University of Iowa and serves as editor of The Daily Iowan. He earns a BA in 1923, an MA in 1925, and a PhD in 1928. He is pictured below surrounded by his staff in the Daily Iowan offices.
The University of Iowa begins offering a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
The Daily Iowan becomes the first college newspaper to feature full Associated Press wire service.
The University of Iowa establishes the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. It is headquartered alongside The Daily Iowan in Close Hall, which was all but destroyed by fire in 1940 and demolished in the late 1960s.
The UI School of Journalism and Mass Communication becomes one of the first journalism schools in the nation to offer photography classes.
The UI School of Journalism and Mass Communication offers courses in radio.
The Daily Iowan moves to the Communications Center. Shown below are students working in the newsroom in a photo from the 1954 Hawkeye yearbook.
The Daily Iowan is honored for excellence by the Inland Daily Press Association. Pictured below: Editor-in-chief Phil Currie and Publisher Fred Pownall review the winning issue of The Daily Iowan near the trophy.
The Daily Iowan is named Newspaper of the Year by the Iowa Newspaper Association. It earns the honor again in 1981.
The Daily Iowan is named the nation’s best college newspaper by the Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi.
The Bill Mertens Memorial Daily Iowan Scholarship is established to attract the best high school journalists to the University of Iowa—and to the newsroom. To date, it has awarded more than $1 million.
The UI School of Journalism and Mass Communication offers a course in online journalism.
The Daily Iowan earns its first of five Pacemaker awards, the college newspaper equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, from the Associated Collegiate Press. The paper wins subsequent awards in 2001, 2006, 2008, and 2013.
The Daily Iowan moves to the Adler Journalism Building.
The Daily Iowan launches DITV, a daily news broadcast. Below is a behind-the-scenes photo from 2017.
Learn more about The Daily Iowan.