THRO

This

 

is 40

Forty volumes of student journalism
at Douglas College

Jacey Gibb
Editor-in-Chief

 

Originally Published September 10, 2013

was an appropriate opening
to this Feature has been
daunting.

A brief history of 40 volumes
worth of the Other Press? Should I
assume youre someone who’s never
enjoyed our paper before? Can I
dive into the paper’s lore and expect
you'll know everything I’m referring
to? History is something I’ve grown
to appreciate as I’ve gained more of
it myself. Without documentation,
those things called memories can
dissolve into blips in our cranial
databanks.

The Other Press has been a
mainstay at Douglas College since
1976, over time producing 39 volumes.
As of this issue’s printing, we’re
now in Volume 4o. Didn’t know
Douglas College has a newspaper?
We're a relatively large publication
compared to other college/university
newspapers, with a core staff of 16
people and a collective of dedicated
contributors, made up almost
exclusively of Douglas students and
alumni. We publish weekly during the
fall and winter semesters, monthly
during the summer, and we're open
2.4/7 over at theotherpress.ca.

To commemorate this literary
milestone of 39 volumes past, I
decided to round up some Other
Press history and compile it into
one digestible word count. We’ve
got some insight into how the paper
first came to fruition in ’76, a look at
how the content has changed since
then (spoilers: a lot), and there are
even some words from Other Press
graduates.

A healthy alternative since ‘76

Let’s start this memory-train off in
1976, when the Other Press made its
official debut as the second newspaper
at Douglas College.

An article by Terry Glavin in the
20-year anniversary issue of the Other
Press tells the story of howa small
group of hopeful writers gathered
for an all-nighter to construct the
premiere issue. “All we knew is that
some of us knew how to write, and
some of us knew how to use a camera,
and when it came down to it that’s
what we wanted to do.” Most of them
were in Douglas’ then-journalism
program and were dissatisfied with
the college newspaper, the Pinion,

which “appeared maybe once or twice
a semester.”

One night, the group of rogue
writers asked the program head/then-
editor of the Pinion, Charlie Giordano,
if they could use the newspaper’s
production equipment. He gave the
go-ahead and then left for the night.
When Giordano came back the next
morning, Glavin and company were
still there, putting the final touches
on what became the first issue of the
Other Press. The team then pooled
their money and trekked out to
Hacker Press in Abbotsford for the
official printing.

Where did the paper’s name come
from? Even Glavin couldn’t recall.
“We hadn't quite decided what to call
the thing. All we knew for certain was
that we wanted to produce something
other than the Pinion. So the name
fell to the Other Press.” To be fair, the
name could be much worse: in ’77,

a proposal went before the student
council for a third newspaper at
Douglas called the D.C. Student,
which would siphon off half of the
Other Press’ budget. The proposal
was shut down, and the Other Press’
budget grew to about 25 per cent of
the Student Society’s fall budget.

Fashion and other funny business
In our office at the New Westminster
campus, you'll find a bookshelf lined
with blue yearbooks of Other Press
volumes past. The oldest, from ’77,
contains Volumes Four and Five.
Structurally, the paper is
unrecognizable from what it once
was. Separate sections didn’t even
make their debut until the third issue
of Volume Four and were limited
to Letters, Arts, and Sports, though
campus content and opinions pieces
existed without mastheads. Makes the
current setup look pretty sweet, right?
#sixsectionsandafeature
You wouldn't know by looking at it,
but a tent pole section of the Other
Press, Life & Style, is relatively new—
at least in relation to the paper overall.
Originally pitched in 2010 as
the Fashion half-section by then-
Contributor Stephanie Trembath, the
section was meant to help fill the gaps
between Arts and Opinions, where
topics like designer trends and style
pieces could find a home. By the next
semester, Fashion had become a full
section and eventually underwent a
name change to Life & Style, adding
things like recipes and a recurring sex
column.