Who are we?

The Prairie News (TPN) is the West Texas A&M University digital newspaper with content reported, edited, and produced entirely by students. The TPN student journalists and the publication (www.theprairienews.com) play a vital role in informing the WT community about campus events, serving as a check to the administration, and sharing campus stories. TPN publishes online during the fall and spring terms. TPN does not currently publish content during the summer.

TPN is committed to reporting events and issues following practices that honor the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics and operates on professional standards and responsibility instead of censorship or administrative control.

HISTORY

TPN has served the WT community since October 20, 1919, when four pages were published as the first edition of The Prairie at what was then West Texas State Normal College. The English Department hosted the newspaper, and the staff consisted of an editor-in-chief, an assistant editor, a business manager, an art editor, a society editor, and an exchange editor. Some representatives would oversee works on athletics and fine arts. 

The Prairie joined the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association in 1923, and the staff began publishing a weekly print issue. The Prairie debuted online at www.theprairienews.com website, with its first online story published in 2010. Social media pages followed, and publication dates for the print editions took on a once-monthly schedule. TPN celebrated its 100th anniversary on October 20, 2019, and distributed its last print issue, transitioning into a fully digital student newspaper.

Adapted from Savannah Wesley’s The evolution of The Prairie: From print to web, published in 2019.

ARCHIVES

Archives of past printed issues can be found at the Cornette Library Special Collections and University Archives. Some issues are also available at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum Research Center.

The earliest print issues can now be found in WT’s digital repository.

Issues printed from 2010-2019 can be found here.