The Daily Tar Heel's history

Feb. 23, 1893

The Tar Heel is founded by the Athletic Association as a weekly four-page tabloid financed through advertising revenue and subscriptions. Students paid an annual subscription of $2.50, or $0.05 per issue.

June 5, 1920

Then-editor Thomas Wolfe announces the paper will soon begin publishing twice-weekly.

September 1920

The paper begins twice-weekly publication.

1923

The paper transfers oversight from the Athletic Association to the Student Publications Union Board, which also oversaw Carolina Magazine, the Carolina Buccaneer and the Yackety Yak. All students were automatically charged an annual $5.50 publications fee.

1925

The paper begins publishing three times a week.

1927

The paper’s first summer edition is published. The summer edition wouldn’t become commonplace until the 1940s.

Feb. 7, 1929

A financing proposal to fund a daily Tar Heel passes a campuswide vote 666 to 128. The paper begins publishing Tuesday through Sunday.

March 1943

The paper scales back publication to twice weekly until the end of World War II.

Feb. 5, 1946

After the end of the war, the paper returns to daily publication with the goal of becoming “the greatest college newspaper in the world.”

1977

The paper is constitutionally guaranteed at least 16 percent of student activity fees for funding. The same year, the paper was granted its own independent publication board.

1989

The DTH incorporated as a separate educational 501©(3) non-profit entity from the University.

1993

The paper stopped taking student fee money, making it completely financially independent from the the University for the first time. The change also allowed the paper to change the way it selected its editor, replacing a campus-wide election with today’s selection process.

November 1994

The paper posted its first edition online, making it one of the first newspapers of any kind in the country to do so.

Nov. 18, 2009

The DTH announces that it will be permanently moving its offices off campus from the Frank Porter Graham Student Union to 151 E. Rosemary St. The DTH plans to begin operations in the new venue in Fall 2010, doubling the amount of office space available to DTH staff.