Monday, September 28, 1998
About the Daily Bruin
The Daily Bruin is a student-run publication with a circulation
of 20,000. It is distributed on campus, in Westwood and in parts of
West Los Angeles. The estimated daily readership of The Bruin is
56,000.
The Communications Board, which is a branch of the Associated
Students of UCLA, is the publisher of The Bruin, the seven
newsmagazines and KLA radio station.
The Communications Board consists of four undergraduate
representatives appointed by the undergraduate council, four
graduate student reps appointed by the graduate council, a faculty
rep, an administrative rep, an alumni rep, and a professional
representative. The media director, who runs Student Media UCLA, is
an ex-officio member.
Neither the Communications Board nor parent organization ASUCLA
exercise control over editorial content.
The Bruin is not affiliated with the undergraduate student
association council (USAC). In the 1950s, USAC was able to
influence editorial appointments and control the content of the
paper, but The Bruin has since broken free from outside editorial
influence.
All Bruin editorial hiring decisions are made by the editor in
chief. Applicants for the editor in chief position must fill out an
application, go through a staff endorsement hearing, and then
attend a final hearing by the Communications Board, which makes the
final decision. The new editor then makes all hiring decisions in
the editorial department.
The Bruin consists of the editorial department and the
advertising department.
At any given time, the Bruin editorial department has a staff of
over 100 students who report, edit, design, photograph, illustrate
and take on production duties. Bruin staff members occupy the
offices throughout the day, and many do not leave until the paper
is completely finished, which is generally around 1 or 2 a.m.
Most of those students work without financial compensation.
There are a number of paid staff positions, but these are positions
students work up to after interning for at least a quarter.
Editorial wages account for only 10 percent of The Bruin’s
expenses.
The Bruin is a completely self-sufficient organization and is
not subsidized by the university or the students association. The
advertising department generates revenues of $2.1 million, which
makes up 98 percent of our income.
The advertising department of The Bruin is led by the business
manager and several student managers, who supervise their own staff
of sales assistants and account executives. Our advertising staff
numbers from 40 to 50, and all of those students work completely on
commission.
The ad department has no control over editorial content. And, by
extension, advertisers do not have any say in our content either,
although advertisers do not always agree with The Bruin’s
content.
Comments, feedback, problems?
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