Princeton Review Best College Newspapers: 2012 List Posted by College Media Matters on Tuesday, August 21, 2012 · 13 Comments

—

—

—

The latest rankings report listing the country’s “Best College Newspapers” has been released by Princeton Review. The papers are listed below, in order of their selection.

Penn State’s Daily Collegian vaulted to the top, following in the footsteps of its CMM “College Newspaper of the Year” honors earlier this summer.

The Daily Kansan moved up dramatically as well. The Red & Black, The Michigan Daily, The Daily Nexus at UC Santa Barbara, The Rocky Mountain Collegian at Colorado State University, and The Technician at North Carolina State University all jumped onto the list after not appearing on the 2011 version. Meanwhile, The Daily Northwestern and The Daily Texan suffered big drops. The Battalion at Texas A&M had the biggest spiral– dropping from the list after appearing at #5 last year. The Minnesota Daily, The Daily Mississippian, The Daily Campus at UCONN, and The Hilltop at Howard University also disappeared from the current version.

The Princeton Review rankings are not without controversy. As Bryan Murley from the Center for Innovation in College Media confirmed two summers ago, the process by which these papers achieve the “Best” distinction is, well, fairly ridiculous.

Yet, the rankings receive more attention from the public and mainstream media than every other student journalism contest and competition, including the Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker awards (the closest the student press has to the Pulitzer Prizes). Why? My guess, without sarcasm or cynicism: It’s an offshoot of the attention given to the sexier rankings such as “Best Party Schools.”

—

—

1. The Daily Collegian, Penn State University

—

—

2. The Daily Tar Heel, University of North Carolina

–

—

3. Yale Daily News, Yale University

–

—

4. The Brown Daily Herald, Brown University

—

—

(Tie) 5. The Badger Herald, University of Wisconsin-Madison

–

—

(Tie) 5. The Daily Cardinal, University of Wisconsin-Madison

—

—

6. The University Daily Kansan, Kansas University

—

—

7. The Diamondback, University of Maryland

—

—

8. The Independent Florida Alligator, University of Florida

—

—

9. The Daily Nexus, UC Santa Barbara

—

—

10. The Red & Black, University of Georgia

—

—

11. The Cornell Daily Sun, Cornell University

—

—

12. The Rocky Mountain Collegian, Colorado State University

—

—

13. The Daily Orange, Syracuse University

—

—

14. The Daily Gamecock, University of South Carolina

—

—

—

—

16. The Michigan Daily, University of Michigan

—