The Journal is an independent newspaper covering based in Edinburgh and Glasgow and serving almost 200,000 students producing 18,000 copies every fortnight.

Having won best student media from NUS Scotland and the Scottish Student Journalism Awards in 2012, the paper has continued to develop in 2012/13, doubling its volunteer staff to almost 300 writers, photographers, designers and editors, of which 90 per cent come from non-journalism courses, continuing our ethos to be open to all students at universities AND colleges, with no barriers to participation in Scotland’s student newspaper - this is aided by regularly attending freshers’ fairs at colleges and universities, sending mailshot through faculty admin staff to all students and speaking at student media weeks to tell students how they can get involved with the Scotland’s largest student newspaper.

2012/13 was a particularly special year with the first woman as chief editor of the newspaper in Glasgow. The Journal’s commitment to equality and diversity has seen more women than men become desk editors on merit across both editions, an increase in college students becoming contributors and editors, while the paper has also increased its involvement of international students with students from Canada, Poland, Albania, Spain, France, Pakistan, India and Portugal becoming an integral part of our team this year.

The newspaper continues to established an ambitious digital-first policy across news, arts & entertainment, comment & features and sport with our high quality journalism and innovative use of social media allowing us to double website traffic to achieve 55,000 unique web hits in March 2013 and print readership in excess of 40,000 every fortnight.

In the last 12 months, our unrivaled comment section has seen contributions from politicians, including David Cameron and Alex Salmond, an interview with the Israeli ambassador to the UK, as well as independence coverage from Alistair Darling and Blair Jenkins in our special coverage of the Scottish independence referendum, providing high standards of comment from academics, politicians and key thinkers alongside passionate student columnists.

We have secured interviews with Emile Sandé before she made it, Gary Numan on his comeback, rising Glaswegian stars CHRVCHES, comic book writer Mark Millar, as well as many other up and coming bands and prominent figures in the Scottish arts scene.

We have also pushed the boundaries of student journalism this year by securing accreditation for events usually reserved for the mainstream press including, among others, the Scottish Parliament, major Scottish festivals and professional sports events including the Olympics, Scottish football internationals, Davis Cup tennis, Six Nations and Heineken Cup rugby and Formula 1 motorsport, allowing us to enhance the quality of our online and print reporting at major events which our readers are interested in.

The Journal’s news reporters pride themselves on being the best at what they do, holding students’ associations and management to account, and uncovering the stories that they try to suppress, but also championing the excellent campaigning led by students including the NUS national demo, delays to student funding, cuts to college budgets and specialist courses, equal marriage, keeping Wednesday afternoons free for participation in student sport, removing students from immigration targets and challenging discrimination on campuses across Scotland.

This has led to scooping the national newspapers on the biggest stories involving students this academic year, including City of Glasgow College forcing through new students’ association constitution without student approval, CitySA president resignation citing health reasons, George Galloway attempting to sue the NUS, the Edinburgh University Students’ Association interdict against its own student newspaper, the true cost of public finances funding the Edinburgh College merger (initially denied by the ed sec in an interview, but later confirmed as true in the Scottish Parliament), how students’ data is at risk of cyber attacks because of IT security deficiencies at Scottish universities - many of these have subsequently been picked up by Scottish and UK mainstream media including The Scotsman, The Herald, The Guardian, BBC and Huffington Post.

At every stage, we offer students the very best opportunities to advance their career as journalists, many of which are not available for junior reporters on local newspapers, whether it is attending press calls and events at arts festivals across the country, covering cup finals at Hampden Park or rugby internationals at Murrayfield, sitting in the press gallery at the Scottish Parliament or just investigating what is happening on campus. No freesheet newspaper in Scotland offers the quality of journalism The Journal produces, and editors of mainstream newspapers are continually impressed by the work we are able to produce on a regular basis.

As a result of our high quality, high standards and professional outlook with regular training for all staff and a rigorous editing process, many of our contributors have gone on to secure internships, regular freelance work or full-time positions with the Daily Record, Daily Mail, The Times, Scottish Sun, Sunday Post, STV, BBC, Press & Journal, Holyrood Magazine, The List and the Evening Times with some students set to graduate this year already securing postgraduate opportunities on some of the UK’s most prestigious journalism courses by building skillsets and portfolios through their involvement with The Journal despite not studying journalism at university.

To ensure that we stay ahead of the game, and remain relevant to our readers, we have also launched the first ever feedback survey, allowing our readers to tell us what they like and dislike about the paper, and what they think we can do better, with this feedback to be considered over the summer so we can implement any changes needed for the 13/14 year so we can become even better at what we do.