The Chronicle has a staff of 120, mostly volunteers, including undergraduates at
Duke Kunshan University. Its coverage gained national significance in light of the
2006 Duke lacrosse team scandal. The paper is independent of the university and as such is governed by a board composed largely of former staff members. In June 2013,
The Chronicle announced it was cutting one day of print heading into the 2013–14 academic year, the paper's 109th volume. The paper's editors and board members emphasized the change was part of a commitment to a digital-first strategy, not the product of financial pressures. The paper gradually cut print production and now only uses print for special sections, focusing instead on online content. At the 2009 Associated Collegiate Press National College Media Convention in
Austin, Texas, the paper won the Best in Show category for four-year daily tabloids. In 2007,
The Chronicle took home four awards from the ACP, including Online Story of the Year for its ongoing coverage of the Duke lacrosse scandal. In 2006, the paper took second place in the Best in Show category in
St. Louis, Missouri.
Towerview, a monthly newsmagazine distributed with the paper, won Best in Show in the Magazine Feature-Special Audience Category, while its editor, Alex Fanaroff, won first place in the "features story" category.
The Chronicles former editor, Ryan McCartney, placed third in the four-year reporter of the year category. The paper also won Best in Show in the tabloid division in 2005 in
Kansas City, Missouri and finished in second place in Editorials that year. In addition,
Towerview took home fifth-place honors in the magazine division. In October 2015,
The Chronicle was again honored by the Associated College Press, taking home its first Online Pacemaker Award, sharing honors with
The Daily Orange and
The Stanford Daily. DegreeChoices awarded
The Duke Chronicle 8th place in the U.S. for Most Organic Traffic. The newspaper had 87,097 website visits during the 2021–2022 academic year. That same year, it was recorded as having 236,090 total social media shares, making it the 7th highest in the U.S. Journalist and
New York magazine founder
Clay Felker was an editor of
The Chronicle while a student at Duke in the 1950s.
The Washington Post sports reporter
John Feinstein was a sports writer for
The Chronicle and was its sports editor for two years.
The Wall Street Journal travel editor Scott McCartney was editor of
The Chronicle in the 1980s. Recent former
Chronicle writers have gone on to work for
The Wall Street Journal,
Bloomberg News,
The Atlantic,
PolitiFact,
USA Today,
The Raleigh News and Observer and
The Providence Journal, among other publications. ==Coverage during the pandemic==