Central Florida Future

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Central Florida Future
Central Florida Future
Central Florida Future front page.jpg
The front page of Central Florida Future on March 31, 2011 in its former broadsheet format.
Type Weekly student newspaper
Format Tabloid
Owner(s) Florida Today (Gannett)
Founded 1968; 56 years ago (1968)
Headquarters Orlando, Florida, United States
Circulation 20,000 (2013)
Website centralfloridafuture.com

The Central Florida Future is the independent weekly student-run newspaper of the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. The Future is one of the largest student-run newspapers in the United States, with a circulation of 20,000 and readership of over 35,000.[1] It is an affiliate of UWIRE, which distributes and promotes its content to their network.

The paper prints every Thursday during the fall, spring, and summer semesters. The Future was founded as the university's official newspaper shortly after it opened in 1968. The Future has been financially and editorially independent from the university since 1992. The paper was purchased by Florida Today, which is owned by Gannett, in 2007.[2] Only students from UCF are allowed to be employed by the paper. In addition, the paper gives priority to enrolled college students for work in the editorial department, to be an advertising representative or serve as an intern.[3]

The Future is distributed free on UCF's campuses, as well as around Orlando and Oviedo. The paper contains a mix of campus and local news coverage, as well as national and international stories from wire services. It also contains a sports section, entertainment section, and an opinion section. The Future prints in a tabloid format, similar to that of Boston Herald and the Daily Mail.

History

Early years

FTU Citronauts logo, ca. 1969
FTU Knights logo, ca. 1978

The Future has been in publication since the first day of class held at the Orlando campus in 1968. The name of The Future is derived from the original name of the University of Central Florida, Florida Technological University (FuTUre). The words Central Florida were after the school changed to the University of Central Florida in 1978. The Future held its offices in the UCF Library just as many other organizations did in the early years of the university's history.

When the University first opened, students had no choice for the mascot. The Citronaut was the unofficial mascot for FTU's first year, appearing one only official publications, the cover of the 1968–69 student handbook. After a year, students petitioned the student government for a new mascot. In response, The Future published what its staffers felt were important criteria for a new mascot: an animal that flew, as the school motto is "Reach for the Stars", it should also be virtuous, include the school colors of black and gold, and it should be something unique because "FTU stressed the importance of individuality." Shortly thereafter a student health center nurse, Judy Hines, followed the criteria and came up with Vincent the Vulture.[4] This mascot stuck for a year before the school administration and students decided on a new official mascot, "Knights of the Pegasus."

Independence

In 1993, The Future was made independent of UCF by being spun off as an independent company, Knight Newspapers, Inc. At the time, the company also held ownership of the Seminole Chronicle. In February 2007, Florida Today purchased Knight Newspapers, Inc. which included the Central Florida Future. Florida Today is owned by Gannett, which made the The Future the second student-run university paper to be purchased by Gannett, the first being the FSView & Florida Flambeau of Florida State University.[5]

Subsequent to the sale, offices moved to the Central Florida Research Park, which is located directly south of UCF's main campus. After purchasing the The Future, Gannett moved three other products within the same office as The Future, including The Seminole Chronicle, a weekly newspaper covering Seminole County, Moms Like Me, a monthly magazine for mothers, and Saves, a coupon booklet packaged with the The Future.

Circulation

The Future prints 20,000 copies every Thursday during the fall, spring, and summer semesters, and distributes the papers throughout campus and in the surrounding area through the use of more than 200 newspaper boxes.[6] For the fall 2009 semester, budget cuts and the economic recession forced the paper to cut printing from Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the fall and spring semesters and switch to Monday and Thursday publishing for all semesters.[6] In August 2014, the paper announced that it would become a weekly publication, with release every Thursday, and that production would shift from the broadsheet to tabloid format.[7]

The Future is an affiliate of UWIRE, a wire service produced by student journalists at more than 800 colleges and universities across the United States, giving the paper access to news, sports, features, entertainment and opinion articles by the other members.[8]

Awards

In Spring 2010, at the Society of Professional Journalists region three conference, the staff of the "Central Florida Future," at the time led by Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Riley,[9] was awarded two first-place awards. The first award was for "Best All-Around Non-Daily Student Newspaper", and the second was for "Best Affiliated Website." Both awards had not been won by The Future before. Also at the conference, writers for the The Future won first and second-place awards for "Online Sports Reporting", first place in "Feature Writing", and first place in "Sports Writing".[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Gannett buys UCF student newspaper
  2. ↑ The Chronicle of Higher Education
  3. ↑ Central Florida Future - About
  4. ↑ Central Florida Future
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 CFFrate0708.qxd
  7. ↑ "Welcome to the future of the Future" Central Florida Future. 2014-08-13
  8. ↑ UWire - Affiliates
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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