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What is The Northerner?
The Northerner is the independent student newspaper of Northern Kentucky University, published at The Northerner. It covers campus and surrounding regional news, Norse athletics, and arts and life at NKU, with bylined reporting from student staff and editors.
What you'll find
- News: Campus events, plus regional politics with a student angle, such as Ohio voting rules, candidate debates and Kentucky rallies.
- Sports: Match reports and recaps of NKU teams in Horizon League play, including soccer and volleyball.
- Arts & Life: Student traditions, campus events and behind-the-scenes features on theater productions.
Who it's for
Current students and staff who want campus news, prospective students and parents checking the pulse of the university, and local residents following NKU and Northern Kentucky stories. Alumni who want occasional updates will also find it useful, though coverage is oriented toward the current campus community.
How to use it
If you're a student, start with the News section for decisions that affect campus life, and check Sports after games for recaps. If you're researching the university, treat it as a student-run publication: lively and close to campus, but not an official NKU channel. For official announcements, compare against the university's own site.
Who can submit news tips or story ideas to The Northerner?
Anyone with information relevant to Northern Kentucky University and its surrounding community can submit news tips or story ideas to The Northerner, the independent student newspaper of NKU. That includes students, faculty and staff, area residents, and people outside campus who have a tip touching NKU or the region it covers.
The paper's published work shows the range it expects: campus events and sports results, student government and university decisions, plus local and state politics such as Ohio's voter ID amendment, Kentucky rallies and the governor's race. If your tip fits that mix, it is worth sending.
A practical next step is to write a short tip that answers three things: what happened, who is involved, and how you know. Include dates, locations and any documents or photos you can share, and say whether you are willing to be named or want to stay anonymous. Newsroom staff can then judge whether it fits their coverage and follow up.
For comparison, other student newsrooms set similar open-door policies, so a tip sent to The Northerner is a reasonable first move for an NKU-related story. If your item concerns a different campus, send it to that school's paper instead.
How can I find The Northerner's coverage of NKU sports teams?
Start with the Sports section on The Northerner's homepage, then use its "View All" link to see the full sports feed. The page you supplied lists recent game stories there, including NKU men's soccer's 1–1 draw with Wright State, a 7–0 women's soccer win over Purdue Fort Wayne, and volleyball sweeps, so that section is where team-by-team coverage lives.
Practical ways to narrow it down
- Go straight to Sports, not the homepage feed. The homepage mixes politics, campus events and arts stories; the Sports block groups Norse results together.
- Use "View All" for older games. The homepage shows only the latest few items, so the full sports index is better for finding a specific match or season.
- Search by team name and sport. Queries like "NKU women's volleyball" or "NKU men's soccer Wright State" match how headlines are written, with the team and opponent named.
- Follow the byline. Sports stories are credited to staff, and the sports editor's byline recurs across match reports, so that name is a quick way to spot game coverage.
- Check Arts & Life and News for context. Stories about campus events or athletics-adjacent news sometimes sit outside the Sports section.
A quick example
If you want to know how the volleyball season is going, open Sports, scan for volleyball headlines, then continue into the full feed for earlier matches. Reading two or three match reports in sequence gives you a sense of form that a single recap won't.
Choosing your route
| If you want… | Best starting point |
|---|---|
| The latest results | Sports block on the homepage |
| A specific past game | Full sports feed via "View All" |
| A season overview | Several match reports read in order |
| Campus reaction or context | News and Arts & Life sections |
For broader context on the university, the official site is Northern Kentucky University.
What does The Northerner report on regarding local and state elections?
The Northerner reports on Kentucky and Ohio elections with a strong focus on races and ballot measures that affect Northern Kentucky University students and the surrounding region. Its election coverage mixes campus-level political activity with state and federal contests.
What the coverage includes
- Statewide ballot measures: An Ohio constitutional amendment that would require certain ID to vote.
- Voting logistics for students: Absentee and mail-in voting rules, the surrounding debate and the practical impact on students.
- Statewide races: Ohio's governor race, framed around division over data centers and property taxes, with two candidates new to the ballot competing to succeed Gov. Mike DeWine.
- Federal races: The first and only debate between Charles Booker and Rep. Andy Barr ahead of midterm Senate elections.
- Campaign events on and near campus: President Trump's rally at Truist Arena, described as the first sitting presidential visit to NKU since George W. Bush, plus a counter rally staged nearby by Democrat Melissa Strange.
- Newer political arenas: Prediction markets such as Kalshi gaining traction before the midterms.
Who it serves and how to use it
The reporting is written for a student audience, so it tends to connect election rules and campaign messages to how they land on campus—voting access, event disruption, local political mood. A student deciding how to vote by mail in Ohio, or an NKU community member wanting to understand why a presidential rally came to Truist Arena, will find that context here rather than in a national outlet.
For broader statehouse and national election reporting, compare with outlets such as LkldNow for a different region's local lens, or NPR for national races and voting rules. The trade-off is depth versus scope: The Northerner gives close campus and Northern Kentucky context but won't match statewide or national desks on race-by-race polling and analysis.
A useful next step is to read the absentee and mail-in voting piece alongside the Ohio ID amendment story, since the two together determine what a student voter actually needs to do before election day.
How can students get involved with The Northerner as writers or editors?
Students typically get involved with a student newspaper like The Northerner by pitching stories or asking to join the staff, then building a portfolio through assigned reporting. The paper's coverage—news, sports, arts and life—shows the main desks where new contributors usually start, and bylines on those sections indicate where editorial roles open up over time.
Practical steps
- Start with a pitch, not a résumé. Email the section editor (news, sports, arts and life) with two or three concrete story ideas relevant to campus, plus a short writing sample. Editors value story sense over experience.
- Take small assignments first. Short news briefs, event coverage and sports recaps are common entry points and build trust for longer features.
- Ask about staff meetings. Attending an open meeting shows commitment and reveals which roles—reporter, photographer, copy editor, social media—are actually short-staffed.
- Move toward editing deliberately. Editing roles usually go to consistent contributors who understand deadlines, style and fact-checking; say early that you're interested in that path.
Choosing where to aim
| Goal | Best first move | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Byline portfolio for internships | Pitch news or sports stories | Frequent deadlines, less creative control |
| Editing or leadership | Volunteer for copy/production tasks | Slower to see your name in print |
| Photography, design, social | Contact the relevant editor directly | Less visible writing clips |
A useful next step: read a recent issue, pick one section, and send that editor a single well-reported pitch with a suggested angle and sources. If you're weighing other outlets too, compare student papers such as UKNow or NSU for how they structure student contributions before committing.
Where can I find The Northerner's arts and campus life stories?
Arts and campus life stories are collected under Arts & Life in The Northerner's main navigation, at The Northerner. That section carries campus-centered features and event coverage, such as the Big Pink Volleyball fundraiser during Greek Week, the Live at the Loch amphitheater event run with Norse Code Radio, and a behind-the-scenes piece on costume work for SOTA productions.
For a reader at Northern Kentucky University, the practical move is to open Arts & Life directly rather than scanning the homepage, where politics and sports headlines dominate. If you are following a specific series or event, note the reporter's byline (Raegan Gochoel and Nico Lemons appear on the arts pieces above) and search that name to pull up related coverage.
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