<p>I’m biased, but the publications at Columbia are phenomenal. </p>
<p>The Spectator is the paper of record at Columbia, published daily. WikiCU (a good, though slightly outdated, resource for understanding Columbia’s culture) compares Spec to the New York Times, and I think it’s an apt comparison. They take themselves very seriously, investigating and reporting all the news on campus and in the neighborhood. They have their own offices off campus, and they’re financially independent of the university. They have some 200 reporters and editors who work in the newsroom, and another 100 or so who work on the business side. </p>
<p>Spec is a corporation, and I think the atmosphere is a mix of professional and what you’d find at a stereotypical high school/college newspaper. It’s kind of insular and cliquey and there’s obviously competition for top spots. You can devote as much time as you want to writing for Spec (which is true of all the other publications too), but you’ll be looking at a couple late nights a week if you want to get an associate editor position.</p>
<p>Spec has a couple different sections. They do news, which writes straight, reported news articles; opinion, which includes editorials, op-eds submitted by members of the public, and weekly columnists; and arts and entertainment, which reviews plays and movies and food in the city. They also publish the Eye, a weekly newsmagazine (a la the New York Times magazine) that publishes longer articles. They also run Spectrum, a blog with short posts about Columbia news and culture. Unlike the rest of Spec, it tries to be informal and fun. In general, Spectrum considered inferior to its chief competitor, Bwog (which, full disclosure, I’m affiliated with), which predates it by 4 years.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in traditional newspaper journalism, you should definitely consider writing for Spec. The main advantage is that you’ll be surrounded by other students interested in journalism, and there’s a lot of opportunity for advancement and training. the main disadvantages are the inverse of the advantages: you might find that you have no friends outside of Spec, and it’s tough to stand out in a crowd.</p>