About

The Appalachian has been Appalachian State University’s independent student-run news publication since 1934. We publish a print publication monthly, and send out twice weekly email newsletters during the regular academic year. We are the recipient of the ACP Pacemaker Award, the CMA Pinnacle Award and the NC College Media Association Best of Show award.

Updates for 2024-25 academic year

For nine decades, The Appalachian has served as Appalachian State University’s student-run news organization, igniting student voices on campus. Since 1934, when students unanimously voted in favor of a student newspaper, The Appalachian has dedicated itself to serving not only the students of App State, but the entire App State and Boone community as well. 

Throughout 90 years of existence, The Appalachian’s operations have changed quite a few times. In past years, we’ve made changes in our print production schedule to print once every two weeks, to once a week, to twice a week, and then back to once a week. In 1996, we created our website — igniting our digital presence. From there, we were able to branch out into video broadcasts, podcasts, interactive graphics and social media. 

Of course, COVID-19 required us to rethink our operations quite a bit. We stopped printing physical copies of our weekly newspaper and instead created a weekly, staff-curated newsletter, which included a PDF copy of each week’s paper. The 2020-21 academic year was one of rebuilding, rethinking and re-establishing our digital presence. Our online platform was our main form of publication, which included our website, social media platforms and our newsletter. While this was key in getting information out to our community during a time of stress and confusion, we simply just missed print production. 

So, during the 2021-22 academic year, our staff set out to revive our print publication. And we did. Throughout that year, we set a new schedule for print — once a month. We published nine print editions total, and had the opportunity to publish our seventh annual reader’s choice issue, Best of Boone, along with the introduction of our Black History Month special section in our February edition and a graduation themed issue in April. The Appalachian also ramped up our weekly newsletter, delivering our most notable content for the week directly into readers’ inboxes. 

During the 2022-23 academic year, monthly print issues continued, in addition to Best of Boone and the graduation issue. During the spring semester, we also increased the amount of newsletters sent out each week. Now, we send two fresh, staff-curated newsletters every week.

In the 2023-24 academic year, we built upon our operations such as revamping our newsletters to have horoscopes in them, and our print issues contain LA Times crossword puzzles and Sudoku. We covered things from student safety to protests about identity and international tragedies to calling out administration when voices went unheard and issues during a time in which the community’s voices needed amplification. Additionally, we reported on events that are not yet soon to be forgotten such as sports events and major leadership changes that some describe as historic. Additionally, our publication produced its first ever Hispanic Heritage Month special section and Spanish-translated issue of our paper and saw the creation of a Spanish translations desk. Since then, our publication has continued translating its content online, which can be accessed on the Spanish translations tab on our website.

For the 2024-25 academic year we are continuing off of the changes made since then, and will still print monthly and send out two newsletters every week, on Tuesday and Thursdays, along with new content on our website posted daily and more content translated in Spanish. As this fall is the 2024 Presidential Election, plan to see election coverage throughout the season leading up to Election Day. Finally, as we reach our 90th anniversary in October, plan to see special anniversary coverage from us.

We receive funding from the university, which helps us to compensate our students for the work they do for The Appalachian. However, the bulk of our operational expenses — from printing and website hosting to training and entering our work into competitions — is dependent upon advertising revenue and donations. We cannot exist without the financial and educational support of our fellow departments on campus, our local and regional businesses, and donations of money and time from alumni and friends. If you’re interested in supporting student journalism at App State, please reach out to our adviser, Leigh Tauss at taussl@appstate.edu to discuss.

You can pick up our printed issues from August through May at nearly 60 locations on campus and throughout Boone. Sign up for our weekly newsletter, emailed out to thousands of subscribers each week during the academic year, by going here: https://theappalachianonline.com/newsletter/. Also, check out our website for all of the latest news year-round by going here: https://theappalachianonline.com/. And you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter by searching @TheAppalachian.

Our publication has always been run by students for students, and this will never change.

Our Mission

The Appalachian, a student-run publication at Appalachian State University, strives to provide fair and accurate news for the campus community; to inform, entertain and create a forum for ideas; to provide an outlet for readers’ opinions; to be a champion for student, faculty, staff, and community interests; and to remain editorially independent, by exercising and ensuring the First Amendment rights of students, faculty, staff and the broader community.

Newsstand Locations

Our monthly print edition can be found at nearly 60 locations on and off campus. You can find the locations in the map below or view them here: https://tinyurl.com/theappalachianprintmap

Comment Policy

The Appalachian welcomes comments on all stories published on theappalachianonline.com. Comments will not be censored as long as they do not violate our comment policy. 

A comment will violate theappalachinaonline.com policy if it contains: off-topic or inappropriate remarks using gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual preference or disabilities; personal attacks or threats against the writer or other commenters; derogatory terms, slurs or profanities that would not be appropriate for print publication; advertisements or other spam. 

Users who create a fake email and name will have their comment deleted. 

Comments are a space for thoughtful discussion of the content of the article and not a place for harassment or personal attacks. 

The Appalachian staff will try its best to be consistent when moderating comments.

If you have questions regarding theappalachianonline.com comment policy please email outreach@theappalachianonline.com. 

Policy effective date: March 3, 2020.

Content Removal Policy

The Appalachian strives to provide thorough and truthful coverage to our readers. We intend to maintain and preserve our full record of publication online; however, we recognize the long-lasting impact some coverage may have on a person. Content – whether written, visual or otherwise – will not be removed without compelling argument at the discretion of a review board consisting of current editorial leadership. Please click here to read our full policy.

Note: Opinion pieces reflect the perspective of a single writer.