The Radcliffe News

Back in the 1920's the ambitions ladies of the Harvard Annex published a daily newspaper. At a cost of $2.00 a year, The Radcliffe Daily, which claimed "the honor of being the official spokesman of Radcliffe, furnished students with up-to-date news of the college and community.

Economic forces proved too much for the female journalists, though, and by 1933 the editors of the paper were forced to admit that, "As a daily, its main distinction in the past two years was that it came out at least twice a week." The chronicle adopted its former name, The Radcliffe News, and resigned itself to weekly publication.

The News has never been free from servitude to King Mammon. The paper for the past few years has been partially subsidized by an annual compulsory subscription of $2.25 per student. Next week the student body will decide by referendum whether to retain the subsidy or whether to throw the News into the stormy waters of free competition.

The editors of the News have little confidence in their swimming ability. They admit that the News does not have a sufficiently high reputation among students to insure adequate voluntary subscription. They insist, however, that with the backing of a compulsory subscribtion, the staff can raise the quality of the newspaper.

On the other hand, there are many who think the News would learn to swim if its life preserver were taken away. Of course, no paper at Radcliffe today could arouse the enthusiasm of the Radcliffe today could arouse the enthusiasm of the Radcliffe Fortnightly, the original 'Cliffe publication of 1914.

Then the paper was a mouthpiece for impassioned Suffragettes who wrote, "If, in future days you are asked what you did for Woman Suffrage, will it give you a feeling of satisfaction to be forced to say, 'Why I--er--sympathized?' No!... March in the Suffrage Parade on May second. It is not 'unlady-like' and it is inspiring to march with thousands of others for a principle and a cause!"

In the 1940's the editors wrote: "The Radcliffe News, for you, is a must. Otherwise how can you know the news of the day at Radcliffe." It is extremely dubious that a Thursday evening paper with a Monday afternoon deadline can give anyone the "news of the day." The present editors of the News repeatedly assert that they are not in competition with any dailies in the Harvard community.

Perhaps in order to swim, the News will be forced to adopt a new stroke. To an extent, it has done this already in trying to emphasize feature articles rather than straight news coverage. For example, it is the only publication for the Harvard student community which publishes engagement and wedding announcements.

Until recently, the News most-read column was the weekly menu of the Radcliffe dormitories. Students keenly feel the absence of this public service, which provided such warnings as "Tuesday dinner: corned beef, parsley potatoes, 7-minute cabage, buttered carrots, coffee sponge."

An annual feature of the News is its special issue on men's colleges. Last week the editors informed their readers that Dartmouth is "a man's four year vacation between his mother and his wife." But nowhere in the issue did they mention the Annex's most newsworthy story of the week--that Radcliffe scholarships would rise 25 per cent in the fall.

Since the News seems more concerned, and more capable of presenting feature stories rather than spot news, it might do well to consider the possibility of becoming a magazine instead of a newspaper. Such a revolutionary change in format might attract enough voluntary readers to eliminate the need for compulsory subscription--which its own editors admit is only a necessary evil.

In next week's referendum, students might consider writing in their suggestions for the improvement of the paper, whether they endorse or oppose the subsidy. They might advise, for example, that the News cut down operating expenses by buying cheaper newsprint or using plastic cuts instead of zinc cuts for photograph engravings. They might propose that a magazine form of the News appear biweekly or monthly, still carrying a summary of college news as well as features and editorials.

But whatever it does, the News can never return to the idealism of the old Fortnightly, which once undertook a campaign to make all the Radcliffe girls learn all the Radcliffe songs, some of which encourage the Annex athletes to come home "triumphant o'er the foe."