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General Information

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The Daily Aztec is San Diego State University’s independent student newspaper. Our paper serves a student population of over 35,000 and a faculty/staff population of over 4,000. It’s SDSU’s source for news around campus, sports, concerts, and anything Aztecs related.

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Quick Facts

• Self-Supporting
  • The Daily Aztec is financially independent. It relies solely on advertising sales to fund operations, printing costs and staff. The Daily Aztec receives no state, student or auxiliary funding.
• Run by students
  • Unlike many college papers, all editors, writers, designers and sales personnel are SDSU students enrolled in at least six units.
• 98 Years in print
  • The Daily Aztec was established in 1913 as the Normal News. It later became the Paper Latern in 1921, then The Aztec in 1925. It became The Daily Aztec in 1960.

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Contact Us

Visit the Contact page.

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The Daily Aztec Mission Statement

The Daily Aztec is committed to disseminating the free flow of information to the San Diego State University community. Our ultimate goal is the pursuit of TRUTH, without regard to special interest and with fairness to all. We believe in getting the story first, but first getting it right.

PEOPLE are the most valuable resource at The Daily Aztec. We believe in treating every employee with respect and dignity. In turn, we expect every employee to represent The Daily Aztec with class and professionalism both inside and outside of the office.

Our success has always been dependent upon people working together as a TEAM. To obtain our goals and continue our development, it’s crucial we COMMUNICATE openly and consistently with all parties involved. We must feel free to honestly disagree with one another, while knowing that once a decision is made, we will all support it.

Without the trust of our public, we cannot succeed. That’s why it is essential that each of us maintain the highest standards of INTEGRITY as we go about the business of informing the public. When mistakes do occur, we believe in taking full ACCOUNTABILITY for our actions, and correcting those errors in a timely matter.

We place our highest value on COURAGE. Telling the truth is not always easy; it takes great courage and it involves RISK TAKING. We do not take these qualities for granted. We must constantly practice and encourage these qualities in order to secure an environment of professional growth and personal fulfillment. As an organization, we will strive to abide by these values. We believe that by embracing them, our advertisers will enjoy a healthy return on their investment our employees will be enriched, and our readers will be better served.

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History of The Daily Aztec

The following document explains the history of The Daily Aztec, as it appeared on May 8, 1987 in a final report by a task force on the future of the newspaper.

In Fall 1913, the student body of the San Diego Normal School voted affirmatively to begin publishing a campus newspaper. On Nov. 26, 1913, as a four-page tabloid, the first edition of the Normal News Weekly was published. On the front page, the following announcement appeared:

You voted for the establishment and maintenance of a school paper. It is now up to every one of you, individually, to meet this responsibility. You know the paper cannot subsist on San Diego climate and fricasseed air. Our advertisers pay good, hard coin for the “privilege” of supporting this publication, but they, in turn, must get returns on this expenditure.

As soon as you have read over this article, read over the advertisements: the next step is to patronize these advertisers and tell them you are from the Normal School. We want the “Normal News,” but we can’t have it unless you see that our advertisers get returns for their money.

The Normal News survived until 1921 when it was replaced by the Paper Lantern. The first editor, J.C. Almy Harding, was responsible for both the campus newspaper and yearbook, Del Sudoeste. He noted that,

“President Hardy gave us the best gifts an editor can ask — a free rein both editorially and financially. He offered no advice, guaranteed no subsidy, and reminded us we would be accountable for any journalistic misdeeds.”

The Paper Lantern discontinued the tabloid tradition by moving to a standard size, seven-column news format. Then, in 1925, the students voted to change their official nickname to “the Aztecs.” Reluctantly, the Paper Lantern bowed to this new banner.

During World War II, The Aztec, still a four-page weekly, also published a newsletter for students in the armed services.

The next milestone in the newspaper’s history came in 1959, when The Aztec’s staff proposed publishing on a daily basis. The idea initially was not well received. Most members of the Publication Authority Board did not think there was enough campus news, student interest or money to support a daily newspaper at San Diego State College. In 1960, the Aztec became daily, thus The Daily Aztec.

During its adolescence, from 1925 to 1973, The Daily Aztec was heavily subsidized by the University and Associated Students. It was regularly advised and, in some measure, directed by a Faculty Advisor who was connected with the journalism department. The Associated Students Council approved the budget and all the expenditures for the newspaper. It also appointed the student editor, but not without the approval of the university president. Students who worked on the paper were required to turn in carbon copies of their articles to the faculty advisor, who, in turn, taught the journalism class titled, “Newspaper Production.” The articles were graded and returned to the students who wrote them.

Tensions from these complicated and overlapping relationships prompted University President Brage Golding in 1973 to appoint a Blue Ribbon Commission on The Daily Aztec. The commission evaluated the newspaper’s governing structure and recommended a radical departure from previous arrangements. The commission felt strongly that The Daily Aztec should not serve the campus in two conflicting capacities — as a laboratory tool of the journalism department and as a student publication providing campus news and editorial comment. The commission also argued for greater autonomy for the newspaper — autonomy from the Associated Students Council and the University administration. They did not achieve this goal. But The Daily Aztec did sever its formal connection to the journalism department as a result of this study. And, the idea of a campus-wide policy board, a Publications Authority, serving as publisher of The Daily Aztec was proposed and implemented a year later.

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Online Policies

1. Each story on our site does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of The Daily Aztec.

Commenting:

Commenting on our site is a privilege. We want our readers to add their point of view to every story but ask that they keep their comments relevant to the topic at hand.

We will remove comments and possibly ban users who do the following:

a. Use vulgar or racist language.

b. Threaten harm of any sort to staff, commenters or the subject of an article.

c. Leave spam in their comment.

If you have questions about these rules please contact our Web Editor at: web@thdailyaztec.com

Blogs and videos:

Our blogs and videos are held to the same standard as our print content. The views and opinions expressed in each blog is that of the writer and/or reporter and don’t necessarily reflect the overall views of our paper.