Collection Description

The independent student newspaper of San Diego State. The collection starts with the first edition of the newspaper titled the Normal News Weekly on November 26, 1913 and continues through the current Daily Aztec.

The title has changed several times during the history of the newspaper:
Normal News Weekly (1913-1917)
Paper Lantern (1921-1925)
The Aztec (1925-1927, 1938-1943, 1944-1960, 1961)
The State College Aztec (1927-1938, 1943-1944)
The Daily Aztec (1960-1961, 1962-1970, 1972-present)
San Diego Daily Aztec (1961-1962)
San Diego State Daily Aztec (1970-1971)

Additional summer issues have been published under the following titles:
San Diego Summer Aztec (1962-1965)
Summer Aztec (1967-1969)
San Diego State Summer Aztec (1971)

After publishing for four years weekly on Wednesday (1913-1914) and Thursday (1914-1917) as the Normal News Weekly, the paper ceased publication for four years. No issues were published in the summers of 1915 or 1916. The paper ended with the end of the school year on June 20, 1917.

The Paper Lantern, the new version of the paper, restarted the volume numbering with number 1 when it began publishing in October of 1921. It was published weekly, starting on Tuesday and eventually transitioning to Wednesday for four school years, ending in June of 1925. It did not publish during the summer.

The Aztec, continuing the numbering from the Paper Lantern, published weekly on Wednesdays during the school years of 1925-1926 and 1926-1927. Just before the end of the school year in June of 1927, it changed names to the State College Aztec. It continued under that name publishing weekly on Wednesdays during the school year until June of 1937. During the 1937-1938 school year, it was published twice weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays. With the start of the school year in September of 1938, it resumed the name The Aztec. It was published twice weekly during the school year through June of 1942 with special summer issues in 1940, 1941 and 1942. With paper shortages during World War II, it began to once again be published weekly on Thursdays. There were summer issues in 1943 and for the 1943-1944 school year it reverted to the name State College Aztec. Weekly publications on Thursday continued until 1950 when it changed to Fridays. The paper published during the summer from 1947 to 1952. The paper went to twice weekly (Tuesday, Friday) for the 1954-1955 school year, went back to weekly for two more years and then resumed twice weekly publications in the fall of 1957.

Starting in the fall of 1960, the paper began to be published daily from Tuesday through Friday and four issues after the publication change, the name was changed to The Daily Aztec. With weekly publications in the summer and a name change to San Diego Daily Aztec for the 1961-1962 school year the paper continued this schedule. Specific name changes were made for summer issues for 1962-1965 (San Diego Summer Aztec), 1967-1969 (Summer Aztec) and 1971 (San Diego State Summer Aztec) with no issues published in the summers of 1966 or 1970.

From February 9, 1970 to December 17, 1971 the paper was published as San Diego State Daily Aztec. It was published four times weekly generally Tuesday through Friday.

With the first issue of 1972, the paper's name reverted to The Daily Aztec, the name that has been in use ever since. It published daily Tuesday-Friday during the school year through 2013. Starting in 2000, it would also publish weekly during the summer. A new volume number would start at the beginning of each school year with occasional new volumes also beginning at the start of the calendar year as well.

Starting in 2013, while continuing the name The Daily Aztec, the paper began being published twice weekly, generally on Mondays and Thursdays and would not publish during the summer. In April of 2015, publication was reduced to once a week, generally on Wednesday. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020, the paper transitioned to an online-only publication.

A more detailed history of the paper in all of its incarnations can be found here.

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