By Chris Booker
Publication under protest. That was the message from the voices in the newsroom of The Lantern in October 1991.
The editorial leaders of Ohio State’s student newspaper were challenging a proposed administration policy that would require a mandatory review of the paper’s content by faculty or administrators before publication.
The policy would have taken editorial control out of the hands of students. That was a deal-breaker for Lantern leadership, and more than a dozen editors and reporters resigned in protest.
Rather than an ending for these students, it was a beginning. Within a few months of the protest, many of those students launched their own, self-published newspaper: The Independent.
Kim Bates was one of those students. A journalism major and Lantern news editor, Bates said The Independent represented more than a protest; it was an exciting opportunity.
“We all felt strongly. We talked about it, we thought about it, and it wasn’t something we just ran off and did,” Bates said. “We were trained well to think as strong journalists and about the freedom of the press and, of course, the First Amendment. I just think that we really took those things seriously.”
More than taking a stand, Bates said the decision to start The Independent was also about creating something new.
“Our reason for doing this was to have something that wasn’t directly tied to the university. It didn’t take any university funds,” she said. “Our thought [at the time] is this is the students selecting the stories, writing the stories, selling the ads and really doing all the work for that publication.”
The students were well prepared as reporters and editors, but running a sustainable newspaper was something new. Garrett Schwartz, a political science major and student government leader, essentially stumbled into the role of business manager.
He said he felt drawn to the cause of protesting mandatory editorial review and offered to help.
“So I somehow got myself into the situation where I was like, ‘OK, you guys will write the stories, and I’ll go out and try to find advertising. We’ll find a printer.”
The DIY ethos was infused into the whole project. Schwartz would go door-to-door on High Street, convincing local businesses to advertise. It was common to spend late nights and early mornings at a local Kinkos to lay out the paper and get it ready for the printers.
Once it was printed in Circleville by the owners of The Circleville Herald it had to be trucked up to campus. Schwartz said he made the trip so often, his car could drive the route itself.
Reporters and editors at The Independent delivered the paper door-to-door on campus. That entailed loading hundreds of papers into personal cars — straining suspensions to the breaking point.
“We had school, most of us had jobs too and then this was an additional job. So it was tough,” Bates said. “You had to be devoted to it.”
While running the paper as a new business was different, the approach to ethical, relevant journalism remained the same. The paper covered topics important to students at the time, including university administration, student loans, campus-area housing and student life.
Bates said the university administration took The Independent seriously and didn’t deny access. E. Gordon Gee, Ohio State’s president at the time, would accommodate interviews with Independent reporters, even on challenging or controversial subjects.
“He had a thick skin,” Bates said,
There was also time for fun. Campus culture, the college music scene and student events were infused into the coverage. The paper was well known for its annual bar-hopping guide. It was also home to The Sundial, the university’s long-running humor magazine.
“There was the hope that it was going to turn it into the next Onion,” Schwartz said. “We would be out there, and something would grow from there.”
Unfortunately, reality intervened, and the momentum proved to be difficult to sustain. After a five-year run, The Independent published its final issue. The commitment and effort were well worth it for the time the newspaper existed.
“The rewarding part was wandering around campus, you know, a couple of days [after publishing] and seeing everyone sitting there reading the paper that you helped create,” Schwartz said. “It was fun, it was a great group of people, and it was just, you know, it was so rewarding.”
Chris Booker, ’96, is an Independent alum and remembers many late nights and early mornings writing articles, putting the finishing touches on the layout and filling his car to the windows to deliver papers on campus. After a 20-year career in the news industry, he now works for Ohio State in media and PR.
