Who Writes and Edits The Daily Wildcat?

Updated

The Daily Wildcat is written and edited by University of Arizona students. Its articles carry student bylines with titles such as Editor-in-Chief, News Editor, and Sports Editor, and the publication describes itself as "The Student News Site of University of Arizona." That means the reporting, editing, and multimedia work you see on wildcat.arizona.edu come from student journalists covering campus and Tucson, not from a professional outside newsroom.

What the bylines tell you

Every story on the site credits one or more named writers, often with a role attached. From the homepage evidence, those roles include:

  • Editor-in-Chief — the top editorial position, credited on major breaking stories (for example, coverage of a shooting outside a midtown bar).
  • News Editor — oversees campus news, credited on roundups like "Campus news over the summer."
  • Sports Editor — runs athletics coverage, credited on previews such as Arizona football's trip to Washington State.
  • Staff writers and photographers — contribute reporting, recaps, and photo essays under their own names.

Bylines also appear on multimedia work. Photo and video pieces are credited to individual photographers, sometimes the same person across many posts, which is typical of a student photo desk.

Why the student-run label matters for reliability

Because the newsroom is staffed by students, the content reflects student journalism and a campus perspective. In practice that means:

  • Campus and local focus. Coverage centers on UA housing changes, campus events, Arizona athletics, and Tucson community stories.
  • Named accountability. Stories are attributed to specific editors and writers rather than published anonymously, so you can see who is responsible for a piece.
  • Editorial roles are visible. The presence of titles like Editor-in-Chief and section editors indicates an editing structure, not a single author posting everything.

If you need to judge a specific article, check the byline and the writer's role first — a piece credited to the Editor-in-Chief or a section editor has passed through the paper's editorial chain, while a staff-writer byline tells you it came from a contributing student reporter.

How to verify who is behind a story

  1. Open the article on wildcat.arizona.edu.
  2. Look directly under the headline for the byline and any role label.
  3. Note the section (News, Sports, Arts & Life, Multimedia) to understand the desk that handled it.
  4. Use the section's "View All" link to see the range of work by that desk and its recurring contributors.

The expected result: you can identify the individual writer, their editorial role, and the section responsible — enough to decide how much weight to give the piece for your purpose. A common snag is that some posts list only a name with no title; in that case, treat it as a contributing student writer unless the section page shows otherwise.