Pi Magazine

Pi is a student magazine of the University College London Union.

History

The publication was originally launched as a newspaper. In the aftermath of World War II, there was strong popular support amongst college and UCL Union officials for some sort of community project that would bind together the rapidly expanding campus. Pi was conceived as a fortnightly news-sheet, written and published internally by UCL students. It was first published in 1947.

The paper was extremely popular, even charging a small fee for each issue. Though the initial focus was on student politics, as the paper recruited a more diverse base of writers and journalists, new areas began to receive attention - sports became a prominently featured section, as well as academic discourse and regular interviews with London celebrities. Pi drew favourable comparisons with other heavyweight student newspapers, such as The Oxford Student and the LSE Beaver. British journalist and TV personality Jonathan Dimbleby was once the editor.

In May 2007 'Pi Magazine Society' was constitutionally renamed as 'Pi Media Society' to take into account Pi's expansion into other media formats; Pi Squared Newspaper and www.pi-matrix.co.uk. Since then, there has been careful emphasis by Pi Media to rebrand Pi Magazine as a journalistic outlet for student life and culture. Pi Squared Newspaper has now taken the role of providing news on local and national student issues.

Today

A typical issue of Pi Magazine contains a wide variety of sections of supposed interest to UCL students, such as special features, an opinion section covering current student and general issues, and other sections such as arts, music and fashion.

Alongside the magazine, Pi Squared was launched in October 2006 as a sister publication in newspaper form. Its second issue made it well-read around the university with an article describing toilets in the main building of UCL as a 'cruising zone' for men looking for sex with students.

Both publications are distrubited around the UCL campus, including UCL Union bars, departmental common rooms and libraries.

Editorial structure

The magazine and newspaper are published separately by the society and have separate editorial structures.
The magazine has the following editorial structure (as of December 2008):
Editors: Simon Friend & Melanie Gouby
Unlike many other student publications, Pi Magazine, Pi Squared Newspaper and Pi Matrix do not have a paid full time sabbatical editor. Editors are elected annually at the society AGM from University College Londons pool of undergraduate and graduate students.
Sections in Pi Magazine include: features, music, art, film, fashion, technology and travel.Editorial positions are elected to once a year at one of two Annual General Meetings taking place at the end of the first and second terms at University College London.

ee also

External links

* [http://www.pimatrix.co.uk The Pi Matrix Website]