Flyer News - History

History

The history of the student press at the University of Dayton starts with The Exponent, which began publication in 1902. The Exponent was more literary magazine than newspaper. It was published annually at first, then monthly. Over time, The Exponent expanded its mission to include news, particularly during World War I, but it reverted to a literary magazine with the introduction of The University of Dayton News in 1933. This paper was published every two weeks. The Exponent lasted into the early 1960s as a literary magazine.

The University of Dayton News newspaper became a four-page broadsheet in 1935. It was discontinued in 1944, partly to save paper during World War II, and was restored in 1946, still a broadsheet published once every two weeks. The paper continued on that basis until February 1955. At that time, the newspaper changed printers to a non-union shop to allow students to help with production and to save money. The new printer could not handle broadsheet pages, and The University of Dayton News would not fit across the top of a tabloid page, so the name of the paper was changed to the Dayton Flyer. For the October 21, 1959 issue, the name was changed to Flyer News. The page count and publication schedule were occasionally irregular. By the end of the decade, however, advertising had stabilized and Flyer News began publishing twice a week, a schedule that continues to the present.

Though the newspaper was not called Flyer News until 1959, it generally includes the Dayton Flyer as part of its lineage, as it too was a student-produced tabloid at the University of Dayton. This places the first year of the newspaper in 1955. In addition, both volume 31 and volume 32 were produced during the 1984-1985 academic year; it is unknown why this was done. This is why the current volume of the paper is listed as 59.