As Daily Pennsylvanian editors often caught up in the day-to-day grind, it’s for us easy to forget that 124 boards of editors and managers have done the same work that we do at the DP today. It’s hard to see the context in which we work and the history that brought us where we are today.
This weekend, I saw that context and that history. On Saturday night, hundreds of DP and 34th Street alumni gathered to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the DP. Attendees of the celebration spanned nine decades, with the oldest from the class of 1939.
The operation and structure of the DP has changed dramatically over those nine decades. What used to be physically pasted together or developed in a dark room is now created on computers with digital photos. Students once reported from phones in a newsroom, and today use Blackberrys and iPhones to text sources. A newspaper owned by Penn has become an incorporated company of its own. But, while we all had different stories to tell, the essence of our DP stories all revolved around the same passion about and gratitude toward the DP. We could all tell how our DP experience influenced our lives.
Thank you to the alumni board for organizing this weekend’s milestone celebration and showing the members of the 125th board the history of which they are a part. I look forward to the 150th anniversary celebrations.
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