Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
July 27, 2024

Magazine

FILE PHOTO Students gather in Brody Learning Commons to film a Harlem Shake video in 2013, when Kupferberg attended Hopkins.

A conversation with Benjamin Kupferberg, News Editor '13

By CYNTHIA HU | May 17, 2021

Benjamin Kupferberg graduated from Hopkins in 2015 and from SAIS in 2016. He worked for The News-Letter all four years he was an undergraduate, from 2012-2015. He started by breaking coverage on Professor Steve Hanke’s uncovering of hyperinflation in Iran, which gave The News-Letter national attention. He was then a News Editor and worked alongside Evan Brooker and Nash Jenkins, “some of the finest men to ever grace the Gatehouse.”

CLIFF / CC BY 2.0 Szeto compares the media industry in 2007 to being on the Titanic.

A conversation with Michael Szeto, Associate Online Editor '10

May 17, 2021

Michael Szeto was part of The News-Letter from 2007 to 2010, during which he was Associate Online Editor. He received a Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law and currently serves as university counsel in Stanford University’s Office of the General Counsel.

COURTESY OF MATTHEW DUJNIC  Cushing was on staff at The News-Letter when the News and Features sections merged.

A conversation with Marie Cushing, Editor-in-Chief '10

By AMELIA ISAACS | May 17, 2021

Marie Cushing attended Hopkins from 2006 to 2010 and worked on The News-Letter as the inaugural Layout Editor, Your News-Letter Editor (now Leisure), News & Features Editor and Editor-in-Chief. After graduating from Hopkins she taught for a decade in Memphis and now serves as a research specialist in education for the University of Virginia.

COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES — SHERIDAN LIBRARIES  Students study late into the night at the Library in 1976, overlapping with Garland’s tenure as editor-in-chief.

A conversation with Eric Garland, Editor-in-Chief '77

By KATY WILNER | May 17, 2021

Eric Garland was a writer and editor for The News-Letter during his sophomore year and Editor-in-Chief as a junior. He graduated in 1978 and joined the City Paper startup. He went on to work on a number of magazines, and since 2009 has been a partner in Blue Heron Research Partners, a journalistic-driven due diligence firm for hedge funds and private equity firms.

COURTESY OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY GRAPHIC AND PICTORIAL COLLECTION Students study in Milton S. Eisenhower Library in 1976, when Zelinksy attended Hopkins.

A conversation with Yuri “George” Zelinsky, News Editor '77

By CLAIRE GOUDREAU | May 17, 2021

Yuri Zelinksy (better known as “George” by his News-Letter peers) attended Hopkins from 1973 to 1977, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Social and Behavioral Sciences. During his time at the University, he worked as a staff writer and News Editor for The News-Letter. Today he works in Washington, D.C. as a lawyer.

COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES — SHERIDAN LIBRARIES Einolf’s “Blue Jays Sink Red Ten” covered a Hopkins win over Cornell in men’s lacrosse.  

Delaware Dave yaks recalling Jays lax

By DAVE EINOLF | May 17, 2021

I walked into the Gatehouse during orientation of what was my sophomore year in 1978 and immediately fell in love. I was a Hopkins legacy but a transfer, having spent a year in an experimental high-school-to-college program at the University of Delaware. I had a desire to write. I had been an editor at my high school paper at Wesley College where the Delaware program was housed, and I had even been a sports stringer for Dover Post, a local paper founded only a few years before.

FILE PHOTO Crenson's most memorable experience at The News-Letter was when he wrote a story that exposed Hopkins for owning run-down houses in Baltimore

Ancient Escapades and the importance of feature-style writing

By MATTHEW CRENSON | May 17, 2021

Not long after the middle of the last century, I became an undergraduate at Hopkins. I had received a rigorous but rather unexciting preparation at Baltimore City College, after which Hopkins felt like an awakening. The courses, of course, provided much of the stimulation, but there was an extracurricular electricity too. It became evident one morning in my freshman year as I walked across the Upper Quadrangle. I looked up and saw that someone had decorated the Gilman Hall clock with a beautifully executed Mickey Mouse face.

COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES — SHERIDAN LIBRARIES  Fingerhood describes watching lacrosse as “a real pain in the ass” in April 1982.

Dribbling irreverence into the Sports section

By MIKE FINGERHOOD | May 17, 2021

My fondest memories of college are related to my time at The News-Letter. I had been an editor of my high school paper in Brooklyn, N.Y. that was released only six times per year. I already knew that I wanted to continue to write for my college paper, and then when I decided to go to Hopkins, the excitement grew, as I had been an avid reader of Russell Baker in the New York Times, and I knew of his Hopkins days.

COURTESY OF ANDREW GRAY Gray (standing, fourth from right) and Bill Dwyer (far left) attend an alumni hockey game in 2018, having started the club in the ‘80s.

How a quest for imaginary hockey players led me to The News-Letter

By ANDREW GRAY | May 17, 2021

I cannot remember a time in my life without newspapers. My parents always had them in the house, and my sisters and I would try to find the hidden Nina’s in Al Hirschfeld’s inimitable drawings. My first job, or at least my first real job where I did not work for my parents, was at Frate’s News Store in my hometown. I had to get there at 5 a.m. every Sunday to assemble the New York Times; back then, the paper was shipped in sections to be collated by kids like me at each store. This was three hours of intense shuffling, hands covered in ink, $5 in my pocket and a new pack of gum for the bike ride home.

COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES — SHERIDAN LIBRARIES  Jones stands with fellow graduates and their girlfriends at Commencement 1953.

Remembering The News-Letter seven decades ago

By ROSS JONES | May 17, 2021

My recollections of The News-Letter reach back more than 70 years to when I joined the staff as a reporter in the fall of 1949, my freshman year at Hopkins. I had been editor of my high school newspaper and had worked a couple of summers as a copy boy at the Courier-Post, a newspaper in Camden, N.J. So I was anxious to work for The News-Letter. 

COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES — SHERIDAN LIBRARIES  The Gatehouse was designed in an Italianate style.

The Gatehouse: From 1875 to today

By ARIELLA SHUA | May 17, 2021

Bluish-gray stone walls. Yellow accents around arched windows. A slippery, rundown wooden bridge leads to a front door with white paint peeling off it. And mounted over the door, a plaque which reads “News Letter Office.”

BERNARD GAGNON/CC BY-SA 3.0 Goodman attended and covered the Lacrosse final four and national championship games at Gillette Stadium in 2008.

Sports, spilled cereal and Jim Valvano: A reflection on my three years at The News-Letter

By ERIC GOODMAN | May 17, 2021

Hello. I’m Eric Goodman — Hopkins Class of 2011. I worked on The News-Letter from 2007-2010, the first year as a Sports section staff writer and the last two years as a Sports Editor. Since graduating from Hopkins, I have worked in consulting in D.C. and New York, got an MBA at New York University and now work and live in Seattle with my wife who also went to Hopkins (Class of 2013). 

ULRICH LANGE / CC BY 2.0 When Hocherman worked at The News-Letter, the paper was set in “hot type” on a Linotype machine.

Etaoin shrdlu: learning to proofread on Baltimore Street

By HENRY HOCHERMAN | May 17, 2021

I joined The News-Letter as a freshman in 1964. One of my assigned tasks, in addition to turning out profound, satirical, highly principled journalistic gems, involved going to our printing plant on Thursday evenings to proofread, an odious task reserved for rookies.

COURTESTY OF LIISA HANTSOO Hantsoo could often be seen around the Gatehouse and Homewood Campus wearing plaid pants.

A psychologist sits down with her 1999 self

By LIISA HANTSOO | May 17, 2021

I still walk past the Gatehouse sometimes, 20 years later. Its arched windows and vestigial chimney still stand sentinel over the students who pass through its gently creaking doors, clicking their words onto screens late into the night. The sameness is somehow comforting. 

FILE PHOTO As a Managing Editor, Hawk often worked shifts that were 20 hours or longer.

Re: The News-Letter 125th anniversary project

By DAVID HAWK | May 17, 2021

The News-Letter emailed over 800 alumni to ask if they would be interested in contributing to this magazine issue. Many responded to simply say yes, they would, but David Hawk went above and beyond and replied with a 1350-word reflection about his time at the paper — before we even asked him to write anything! What follows is his email to us, edited only for length and clarity, to preserve its enthusiasm, thoughtfulness and beautifully impromptu nature.

FILE PHOTO In 2015, The News-Letter reported on the Baltimore Uprising and received a prestigious Pacemaker award for its coverage.

Going through The News-Letter’s archives (from the 21st century)

By MICHELLE LIMPE | May 17, 2021

As we celebrate The News-Letter’s 125th birthday, it seems crazy to think that we have been up and running since 1896 and that we have covered everything from the everyday shenanigans of Hopkins students to earth-shattering global events and movements that have impacted the present day. I went through the archives of The News-Letter’s website, which go back to 2001, to find some of the weirdest, most interesting and most important headlines covered by our predecessors. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and read what the Hopkins community has been up to over the past couple decades:

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