<p>Part of the college search process for me is looking into the various publications a school has to offer. I wonder if anyone here on CC has anything to say about The Fed, The Columbia Review, or The Blue and White? How competitive is getting a spot? If you're a writer for one of these publications, about how much time do you dedicate to your pieces? What are the atmospheres of the different publications like? Is it possible to be a contributing member to more than one? I'm just looking for more personal information about school publications, specifically the ones mentioned previously. Thanks for your time and help!</p>
<p>i don’t have any insight to offer, but here are more things to look at </p>
<p>Bwog.com
<p>I’m biased, but the publications at Columbia are phenomenal. </p>
<p>The Spectator is the paper of record at Columbia, published daily. WikiCU (a good, though slightly outdated, resource for understanding Columbia’s culture) compares Spec to the New York Times, and I think it’s an apt comparison. They take themselves very seriously, investigating and reporting all the news on campus and in the neighborhood. They have their own offices off campus, and they’re financially independent of the university. They have some 200 reporters and editors who work in the newsroom, and another 100 or so who work on the business side. </p>
<p>Spec is a corporation, and I think the atmosphere is a mix of professional and what you’d find at a stereotypical high school/college newspaper. It’s kind of insular and cliquey and there’s obviously competition for top spots. You can devote as much time as you want to writing for Spec (which is true of all the other publications too), but you’ll be looking at a couple late nights a week if you want to get an associate editor position.</p>
<p>Spec has a couple different sections. They do news, which writes straight, reported news articles; opinion, which includes editorials, op-eds submitted by members of the public, and weekly columnists; and arts and entertainment, which reviews plays and movies and food in the city. They also publish the Eye, a weekly newsmagazine (a la the New York Times magazine) that publishes longer articles. They also run Spectrum, a blog with short posts about Columbia news and culture. Unlike the rest of Spec, it tries to be informal and fun. In general, Spectrum considered inferior to its chief competitor, Bwog (which, full disclosure, I’m affiliated with), which predates it by 4 years.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in traditional newspaper journalism, you should definitely consider writing for Spec. The main advantage is that you’ll be surrounded by other students interested in journalism, and there’s a lot of opportunity for advancement and training. the main disadvantages are the inverse of the advantages: you might find that you have no friends outside of Spec, and it’s tough to stand out in a crowd.</p>
<p>If Spec ([Columbia</a> Daily Spectator | News, Sports, and Entertainment Coverage for Morningside Heights](<a href=“http://columbiaspectator.com%5DColumbia”>http://columbiaspectator.com)) is the New York Times of Columbia, then the Blue and White ([from</a> the issue – Bwog](<a href=“http://bwog.com/tag/from-the-issue/]from”>from the issue Archives – Bwog)) is analogous to the New Yorker. It’s a monthly magazine that publishes a mix of longform journalism, cartoons, fiction, and humor pieces. The writing is very sharp, and often fairly literary and highbrow, with a touch of humor. The culture of the magazine is quite similar to its tone. It’s a group of smart, slightly elitist, writers who come together to write good pieces. It can be intimidating, especially for freshmen and first-time writers, but it’s not actually that exclusive. </p>
<p>I think it’s also friendlier and more intimate than Spec, since it’s so much smaller. It’s easy to meet incredible writers and editors who will help you improve your own writing, and it’s easy to shine if you have talent. You don’t really have to worry about dealing with internal politics or hierarchies; you can just start pitching and writing interesting pieces. Unlike Spec, which has a whole training process and trial period for new writers, you can pretty much walk into the first Blue and White meeting and pitch an article or get assigned a short piece to write. In general, though, Blue and White writers cut their teeth writing shorter, less formal pieces for Bwog, before moving on to magazine writing. </p>
<p>The Blue and White definitely has a smaller readership than Spec (though both Spec and Spectrum have a much smaller readership than Bwog), but I think they serve very different audiences. If you love the New Yorker (or New York magazine), if you consider yourself an intellectual writer, or if you just can’t stand writing boring, inverted-pyramid style newspaper articles, definitely check out the Blue and White.</p>
<p>Bwog was started as an offshoot of the Blue and White in 2006. It was written in a very snarky and informal style, and was known for being somewhat elitist and cavalier. It covered campus news, some gossip, observations about Columbia culture, and pretty much anything else the original couple of editors wanted to write about. Over time, it gained a large readership and even some national news attention. In 2006, the leader of the anti-immigration Minutemen group was invited by the College Republicans to give a talk at Columbia, which turned into a stage rush and fight. Bwog reported in real time and posted a video of the scuffle, and tracked all the subsequent news coverage of it. In 2010, Bwog was widely cited in the media for its coverage of the drug bust. But I think the point of Bwog is to serve the Columbia community, which it does by telling students what they want to know (news, culture, and so on), and allowing them to leave anonymous comments.</p>
<p>The culture of Bwog is difficult to gauge. It’s extremely open to new people. Anyone can send in tips to Bwog, which they usually research and report on. If you want to write, all you have to do is go to the weekly meeting and pitch an idea or ask to write an upcoming review for a play or lecture on campus. If you want to be more involved, you can apply at the end of the semester to be an editor. There are around 10 editors, and maybe 10 or 15 writers who write regularly for Bwog.</p>
<p>As far as writing for different publications, I wouldn’t recommend you write for both Bwog/The Blue and White and Spectrum/Spec/The Eye. The two organizations, though quite different, are basically competitors.</p>
<p>The Fed is Columbia’s alternative/satirical newspaper. It started as a serious alternative newspaper (think The Village Voice) in the 1980s, but gradually became more of a joke paper until it fully embraced being satirical (think the Onion) around 2000. Generally speaking, it’s not very organized. It keeps ending and re-starting. At this point, if you were interested in writing Onion-style articles for the Fed, you’d go to one of their meetings or email the editor-in-chief with a proposal. If that proposal was accepted, you’d then write it up and it would be published in next month’s issue. If you want to be more involved, you can apply to be an editor (you’ll almost certainly be accepted), so you can vote for which proposals are accepted for each month’s issue and help to edit other peoples’ proposals.</p>
<p>The Jester is Columbia’s humor magazine. While the Fed is limited to satirical newspaper articles, the Jester publishes actual humor pieces. It’s similar to the Harvard Lampoon, or McSweeney’s Internet Tendency (or Slate’s Lowbrow series and the New Yorker’s Shouts and Murmurs). It’s similar to the Fed, though slightly more organized. Just go to a meeting or make a submission.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about the literary magazines (The Columbia Review, Quarto, etc.) or the sex magazines (C-Spot, The Morningside After, etc.).</p>
<p>Wow… Columbia has a a lot of publications. How is it easy for the editors of these publications to get internships and jobs at the New Yorker, Village Voice, NYT and other New York based publications?</p>
<p>You guys were both so helpful! Originally I was interested in The Jester, but had heard or read somewhere that The Jester wasn’t still in publication, or actively publishing, something like that. Thank you both for taking the time to respond my questions, honestly, your answers were more informative an in depth than I had hoped for.</p>
<p>Don’t feel bad. I was pretty sure the Jester stopped publishing too! Both of their websites ([Jester</a> of Columbia : TRAGEDY](<a href=“http://columbia.edu/cu/jester]Jester”>JESTER) and [The</a> Jester | Columbia’s Humor Magazine since 1901](<a href=“http://jesterofcolumbia.net%5DThe”>http://jesterofcolumbia.net)) are woefully out-of-date. But in May, a brand new issue of Jester magically appeared on the publication stands in Lerner (the student center), and I read it and found it hilarious. So the Jester is apparently still publishing.</p>
<p>You’re right that Columbia has a LOT of publications. Here’s an incomplete and slightly out-of-date list: [Category:Student</a> publications - WikiCU, the Columbia University wiki encyclopedia](<a href=“http://www.wikicu.com/Category:Student_publications]Category:Student”>Category:Student publications - WikiCU, the Columbia University wiki encyclopedia)</p>
<p>And I’m glad to give you some background info. I think Columbia has a great media/publications scene, in part because Columbia is such a respected name in journalism and publishing. We give out the Pulitzer Prizes and have one of the best journalism schools in the country. Columbia also attracts a lot of students who are passionate, engaged with the world, and have great writing skills, and unsurprisingly many of these students get involved with undergraduate publications.</p>