After fifty years in the same location, The Brown Daily Herald will be moving its newsroom from 195 Angell Street to 88 Benevolent Street.
The move is scheduled to take place over winter break and to coincide with the annual change of The Herald’s editorial board. The 130th editorial board will take charge of the new space and the paper’s 250-plus staff members.
The Herald is a financially independent, nonprofit media organization and has served as the University’s daily newspaper of record since 1891. It shares 195 Angell Street with the Department of Language Studies, which occupies the upper floor. The Herald occupied both floors of the building until 2014.
The Herald first moved into its current space over the winter of 1969, departing then-Faunce House under the leadership of Beverly Hodgson ’70 P’01 P’07. Hodgson, the first woman editor of an Ivy League daily publication, said that the move “was something done reluctantly but turned out well, and I hope it’s the same for (today).” At the time, most student groups were located inside Faunce.
The Herald will share the building on Benevolent Street with WBRU, a multimedia digital publishing company primarily staffed by University students. WBRU has occupied the building for four decades and recently decided to downsize, making space for The Herald’s private use. WBRU sold its FM radio signal to the Christian contemporary nonprofit Educational Media Foundation in 2017, The Herald previously reported.
During a staff meeting Sunday, the 129th Editorial Board expressed enthusiasm about the possibility of collaboration with its soon-to-be-neighbor.
Kashish Singhal ’20, chief executive officer of WBRU, shared a similar sentiment. “We’re really eager to connect with (The Herald) in new and engaging ways,” she said.
Before The Herald moves into the building, the University will be renovating the space to create a newsroom area.
In an effort to avoid frequent relocations, The Herald’s editorial board said that it negotiated with the University for a five-year lease of the new space with a five-year option to renew.
Hodgson recalled her own series of negotiations with the University to move into 195 Angell Street. “It being 1969, and the editors being very prickly student radicals, we decided that we needed to negotiate hard,” she said.
“We strongly believe this is the best path forward for the organization, and we are proud to help guide The Herald into this new era,” The Herald’s editorial board wrote in an email to Herald staff Sunday.
Clarification: A previous version of this article described WBRU as "an independent nonprofit internet radio station." It is more accurate to say that WBRU is 'a multimedia digital publishing company.' The article has been updated to reflect that change.
