Washington Square News

Washington Square News is the daily student newspaper of New York University and serves the NYU, Greenwich Village, and East Village communities. The paper, better known as WSN, has a circulation of 10,000 and an estimated 65,000 readers online. It is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters, with additional issues published in the summer.

WSN is run solely by NYU students, with the paper's senior staff composed of undergraduates. Its offices are located at 838 Broadway.

The paper is editorially independent from the university and is solely responsible in selling advertisements to fund its production.

The term for the position of editor-in-chief is one calendar year, beginning in the spring semester and ending in the fall semester. The term for all other editorial positions is one semester. The editor-in-chief for the 2010 calendar year is Eric Platt.

History
The newspaper was born in 1973 as the result of NYU's merging of their two campuses: the University Heights campus in the Bronx had published the Heights Daily News, while the Washington Square campus in lower Manhattan originally published the Washington Square Bulletin.

In 2000, WSN launched its website nyunews.com.

Awards
In 2009, reporters Marc Beja and Adam Playford (Editor-in-Chief, 2008) won 1st place in the category of "Best News Story" from the New York State Press Association. At the same time Alvin Chang (Editor-in-Chief, 2007) won best columnist.

Washington Square News won an Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker award in 2004, that same year it was awarded the title of Overall Best Newspaper.

In 2003, the paper won seven first-place awards in the Division 1 "Better College Newspaper Contest" of the New York State Press Association.

Notable former staff

 * Renu Aldrich, Managing Director at Bear Stearns; noted publicist
 * Cindy Behrman, Advertising Editor, Suddler & Hennesey; writer, Village Voice and New York Press (deceased July 22, 2008)
 * Marc H. Bell, CEO of Penthouse Media Group
 * Russell Berman, New York Sun Reporter
 * Fred Clarke, Democratic Party communications guru; now IBM Communications Manager
 * Kevin Coyle, attorney, author, actor
 * Katherine Creag, television reporter, Good Day New York
 * Karen Epper-Hoffman, freelance (technology and business) journalist
 * Eileen "E.P." Gunn, 'Eco-Nomics' columnist, TheStreet.com, freelance writer/editor/lecturer
 * Christopher Haraden, Managing Editor of The Hull Times
 * Annette Heist, Producer of NPR Science Friday
 * Gene Weingarten, Washington Post columnist; 2008, 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner
 * Jay Hochberg, NJPA Prize-winning political columnist turned Press Secretary; Masonic educator
 * Lara J. Kisiel, Empress, Optimum Design & Consulting, Inc.
 * Jessica Letkemann, Editor of billboard.com
 * Mark Mueller, Staff Writer, Newark Star-Ledger (shares 2005 Pulitzer Prize)
 * Jon Mummolo, Washington Post Reporter
 * Lindsay Noonan, Writer/Producer at CNN
 * Brian O'Keefe, Senior Editor of Fortune Magazine
 * David E. Rovella, National Legal Editor at Bloomberg News, Attorney
 * Andrew Nusca, editor, ZDNet, SmartPlanet
 * Bradley Hope, reporter, The National (Abu Dhabi)
 * John "Tits" Lichman, producer, Current TV
 * Bill Bastone, editor, The Smoking Gun
 * Matt Buchanan, editor, Gizmodo
 * Scott Wenger, assistant managing editor, Daily News (New York)
 * Gary He, freelance photojournalist
 * Kira Peikoff, author, The Unholy Grail
 * Amy Odell, editor, New York (magazine)