London Student

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London Student

Type	Student newspaper
Format	Berliner
Owner(s)	Independent cooperative
Founded	1979
Language	English
Relaunched	January 5, 2015 (2015-01-05)[1]
Website	londonstudent.coop

London Student is a student paper, originally the official student newspaper of the University of London Union. It began publishing in 1979 (replacing its predecessor Sennet, including a redesign) and was at one point the largest student-run newspaper in Europe (representing over 120,000 students). At that time it was published weekly in term-time and printed in Gloucestershire, before being distributed to around 50 London sites including non-university further and higher education establishments, such as Polytechnics, overnight. It was financed by a combination of university grant and advertising. The editor was elected annually by other student journalists who had worked on the paper as a sabbatical from studies, and there was one staff member, a business manager and advertising sales person. The paper stopped publishing in 2014 after the University of London withdrew funding, but relaunched itself online the following year under a new editorial team. It is now an independent publication with ultimate control over content and appointments vested in the editorial team as a worker co-operative.^[2]

Until its closure in 2014, London Student distributed 12,500 copies fortnightly during termtime throughout the university year, equating to approximately 12 issues annually. This once made it the largest student newspaper in Europe.^[3]

A campaign to save it was led by the paper's last editor, Oscar Webb, including an open letter to the University of London signed by journalists Amol Rajan, Anita Annand, Laurie Penny and the academic David Graeber, among others,^[4] London Student closed in July 2014 after funding from the university was withdrawn.

It was relaunched as a co-operative not affiliated to the University of London in January 2015, and is now published online. The most recent print edition was a single issue published 1 October 2015. Following its relaunch, London Student won Best Newcomer at the 2016 Student Publication Association (SPA) Awards.^[5] London Student won Best Website at the 2017 SPA Awards and was Highly Commended for Best Use of Digital Media.^[6]