The Saint Student Newspaper LTD.

The Saint as we know it dates back to 1984, when it was published under the name The Chronicle. In 1997 it was decided to re-brand the paper as The Saint. The first editor of The Saint was Tim Samuels, now a BBC journalist, presenter and documentary filmmaker. The paper and its writers went on to win several awards, including Student Newspaper of the Year from The Herald (1998, 2004) and The Guardian (2003, 2004). While being an independent publication, The Saint has often been affected by its relationships with the University and Students’ Association. These relations have occasionally been stormy, particularly in 2004, when the Students’ Association evicted The Saint from its office in the Union building for remarks made in an editorial about Welsh people being worthy of suspicion for “evil doings since they spawned the caterwauling Charlotte Church.” Although reinstated soon after, The Saint has since sought to comply with the editorial standards expected of a national newspaper and to open up to a more diverse student audience. As a result, the paper has become less of a tabloid in its style and content, as sections such as “Halo!” (which essentially comprised of photographs of event-goers in compromising positions) have been replaced and greater emphasis has been put on more varied features and cultural pieces. Today, The Saint continues in print form (the paper being free since 2008), although it has developed as all newspapers must in order to survive the media revolution. The Saint Online features aspects of the publication and supplementary content, as well as allowing the organisation to make use of social media. The Saint no longer has the media monopoly it once held in St Andrews. That challenge has spurred the journalists among us to aim to produce a consistently honest and worthy output of news, features and reviews for the St Andrews community.