Who We Are

The Hornet Tribune traces its roots to Marion, Alabama in the year 1879.  Founded by the university’s second president, William Burns Paterson, The Hornet Tribune began as the Normal Reporter.   It is the first recorded effort by students at State Normal (later to be named Alabama State University) to publish a student newspaper, thus making it the oldest Black college newspaper in the nation.  According to the research, the Lincoln Normal School was relocated to Montgomery and renamed the State Normal School for Colored Students. Once there, Paterson resumed the publishing of the Normal Reporter intermittingly. However, in May 1923, President Harper Councill Trenholm, Ph.D., reorganized the Normal Reporter and renamed it once again to the State Normal Courier and began printing the medium on a monthly basis.

It has been 142 years since the inaugural edition of the Normal Reporter. Through its early years, the paper was small but it resembled other newspapers of the day, as it was the first newspaper to be produced by Black students at a Black institution in the state of Alabama. The first major change in the paper’s traditional production came in 1950, when the name changed from the State Normal Courier to The Hornet. Name changes since then have varied. In 1951, it was called the Alabama State College Hornet and Freshmore but 11 years later, in 1962, the name changed to its present name, The Hornet Tribune. Aside from the newspaper’s numerous name changes, the frequency of publication also shifted. Publication moved from one edition per month to two editions per month under the leadership of several university faculty.

Our mission is to report what’s really going on in your community. We uncover the truth, protect the public’s right to know and hold community leaders accountable for serving the public. We document our university’s moments, milestones and people. Every day, we inform and empower our readers who value credible, in-depth journalism. By providing this important public service, we ultimately help to build a better Alabama State University for the next generation.

How We Work

• • Our editors, reporters and photojournalists operate with the highest ethical standards.
  • We take great pains to assure that our reporting is accurate and promptly correct any errors of fact.
  • Our journalists report independently and strive for fairness.
  • They seek to balance various and conflicting points of view and eliminate partisan bias from their reporting.
  • In print and online, The Hornet Tribune reports the complete, accurate truth as best we can in clear and concise language.
  • We treat people we write about fairly and openly. We work hard to avoid surprising anyone about what they may read about themselves in The Hornet Tribune.
  • We tread lightly into someone’s personal life and reveal no more than is absolutely necessary.
  • We don’t pay sources for tips or story subjects for interviews. We don’t trade favorable coverage for any consideration including access.
  • Our journalists reveal their affiliation with The Hornet Tribune when reporting.

The Hornet Tribune focuses its reporting staff on local matters and closely monitors student government, state and local government, the local economy, entertainment and sports. Our journalists and editors pursue the stories that we believe are most important to you. We are fierce defenders of the First Amendment and open government. We strive to be transparent and want to be clear about where we get information used in our stories.

As a major university newspaper, we include state and national news. For most nation and world coverage, we rely on our trusted news partners, such as the Associated Press. Our partners have well-established reporting and editing practices and we monitor offerings from these news services and select stories we believe meet our standards for accuracy, fairness and balance.

All decisions about what we report and where we display our journalistic content are made by journalists in The Hornet Tribune newsroom.