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Who We Are

The Daily Tar Heel is an official nonprofit. It stopped taking student fees in 1993 and is fully funded by its advertising revenue, thus making it both fiscally and editorially independent. The student journalists are solely responsible for all content under the direction of the student editor-in-chief.

The paper circulates 20,000 free copies each publishing day during the regular academic year to 176 distribution locations throughout campus, Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Durham, making it the largest community newspaper in the area with an estimated readership of 38,000.

The newsroom is overseen by the editor-in-chief. The editor is ultimately responsible for all content and also serves as the public face of The Daily Tar Heel. The editor also hires the rest of the staff, which include:

Frequently Asked Questions

A Typical Day In The Newsroom

On a typical day in the newsroom you will come in at the time set by your desk editors. When you walk in the newsroom you likely will find many other students checking their story assignments or getting photo equipment to go out on an assignment.

By mid-day the newsroom will be full of people making phone calls, typing stories, chatting on the couch, waiting for calls or taking a quick cat-nap between tasks. Editors will go to a budget meeting at 3:30 to pitch stories and decide what will run in the paper that night. When they return from the meeting everyone will be finishing stories, editing photos, designing pages, or frantically trying to make last-minute calls before deadline.

Staff members can come and go as needed for classes and meetings, but they are encouraged to be in the newsroom as much as possible when expecting phone calls to make sure every assignment is completed.

All stories must be finished by 8:15. At that point all stories will be placed on the pages and the finishing touches are added. By midnight, the paper is sent to the printers so it can make it to the stands for the morning rush. After a few hours of sleep it all starts over the next day.

Each desk has a slightly different schedule depending on the nature of the assignments, but in general staff members are asked to work two days each week. The exact details of the day will be determined by the desk editors.

Why You Should Join

SHANNAN BOWEN: "I started at DTH when I was a freshman primarily because I wanted a place to learn journalism and to be published. I knew that internship recruiters wanted people with experience, which I knew I'd be able to get at the DTH.

First, I think the DTH is an important place for anyone who wants to work for a publication in any sort of journalism role, be it online, print, photography, multimedia or research. I remember meeting people in the journalism school who didn't work for the DTH and who thought they could get internships or jobs without experience at a college paper, and the recruiters would hardly talk to them. It's a very important place to work if you want to learn journalism. Trust me, people will probably learn more about journalism working for the DTH than they will in any class.

Second, the DTH provides a huge network of people - alumni, current students, and recruiters. Most recruiters in the past would interview DTHers before other journalism students. If you mention to people at internships or jobs that you worked for the DTH you're highly likely to meet someone through that connection - and we all know that networking is the most important tool when it comes to finding a job.

And, most importantly, the DTH provides you a network of friends. It's basically a fraternity of sorts where you'll meet some of the most interesting people ever. Regardless of whether people want to get into journalism or are just looking for something to do on the side for fun, the DTH can be the place for all those interests to meet. You can put in as much as you want to get out; if you're not serious about becoming a serious journalist there's still a place for you at the DTH - and if you want to become the next editor of the New York Times, well, the DTH is the place to start and to rise in the ranks."

- Shannan Bowen is a 2006 UNC graduate. She worked at the DTH all four years, and served as Investigative Team editor her senior year. She is a reporter at The Wilmington Star-News.

Questions

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Editor Allison Nichols, Print Managing Editor Sara Gregory or Online Managing Editor Nicole Norfleet.