General Info

The Daily Cardinal, the nation s oldest independent student newspaper, remains a prominent voice for University of Wisconsin-Madison s student body and surrounding community. It has covered six wars, followed 20 presidential terms and reported on and surrounded itself with political controversy. Four hundred free copies of the paper were first distributed April 4, 1892 after 75 students, out of 1,500 total college kids enrolled at UW-Madison, discussed the need for a university paper. The founder and first editor, William Wesley Young, would race his horse down State Street to the offices of the Madison Democrat where the printer was located for the first month of the Cardinal s production. Today, the Cardinal prints 10,000 copies of the paper per day. The staff, comprised of more than 150 members, puts out a paper five days per week.