The inaugural edition of the student newspaper at K-State, then known as the ''Students' Herald'', was published in 1896. The school became the first college or university in the United States to offer a four-year course in printing in 1910 with its industrial journalism curriculum. During World War II, the paper was reduced from a
broadsheet to a
tabloid and was published once a week on the campus press. In 1946, the paper returned to its former size and was published on the presses of the
Manhattan Mercury-Chronicle. The frequency and size of the paper changed again in 1949, when a Cox-O Type press was installed in the basement of Kedzie Hall and the
Collegian went from a semi-weekly broadsheet to a daily tabloid-sized publication. In 1966, a 50,000 Cottrell
web offset press was installed. Collegian Media Group acquired the first computerized editing equipment in a Kansas newsroom and among the first four in a U.S. university in 1972, when Bill Brown, the director of the company, persuaded the board to purchase two Hendrix editing display terminals. An upgrade to
punched tape typesetting equipment followed in 1982 with the installation of a
Compugraphic Trendsetter. Another Trendsetter was added in 1983 and the
Collegian changed to broadsheet format. Laser typesetting came to the paper in 1987, when an Apple
LaserWriter Plus and
Linotronic 100 replaced the Trendsetter presses. In 1992, under the direction of adviser Ron Johnson, the paper started evolving towards to full pagination in January, when Student Senate funded a half-million dollar purchase of Macintosh computer equipment. The first
Collegian website launched in 1994. Kelly Campbell and Ryan Korte, the
Collegian network administrators, were among the original creators of the online version of the
Collegian. The first "eCollegian" edition appeared in the summer, becoming only the third college newspaper to publish daily on the Web. The privilege fee continuation resulted in an upgrade of the
Collegians computers to PowerMacs, and printing services purchased a machine that allowed the pages to print straight to film, improving color and reproduction quality. The Electronic
Collegian also won first place in content in the Associate Collegiate Press' Best of the Net competition in Washington, D.C. In 1999, the
Collegian accepted the bid of the
Salina Journal to print the
Collegian on its presses, allowing the
Collegian to go four-color, five days a week, for the first time. The
Collegian has since renewed its agreement with the
Salina Journal. Meanwhile, the historic press machine in the basement of Kedzie was dismantled and removed. By the summer of 2006, the
Collegian officially signs on and launches its updated Web site with the college newspaper hosting company, College Publisher. The
Collegian continued pressing forward with its Web site, and by summer 2007, had begun hiring in-house staff members who focused on video editing. By July, the
Collegian had also established an online e-mail subscription service, message board/forum system and interactive university calendar. On July 9 the
Collegian launched a redesigned Web site with College Publisher 5.0. The
Collegian was one of the first College Publisher affiliates to launch a 5.0 Web site. In the fall of 2012, the
Collegian changed webpage platforms from College Publisher to Wordpress. This change came in unison with an overarching organizational name change from Student Publications, Inc., to Collegian Media Group. The ''Collegian's
logo was changed from a graphic design of the text Kansas State Collegian
to the collegian'' in lower case text with "independent voice for Kansas State University" as a sub-header in the logo. The logo also included a new insignia that is two apostrophes inside a circle forming a "C". For most of its history, the Collegian published in print each weekday throughout the academic year, although by 2019 the Collegian had moved to a Monday, Wednesday, Friday only print edition. By 2024, this had been further reduced to a Friday-only print edition. ==Recent notable awards==