Outlet profile

The Daily Tar Heel

U.S. center-left (student press)

Owned byDTH Media Corp, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization independent of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; fully student-run

FundingAdvertising revenue and donations from alumni and readers; has not accepted UNC student fees since 1993

On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

The paper was founded on February 23, 1893, as a weekly called The Tar Heel, making it the oldest college daily in the South. It was initially overseen by UNC's Athletic Association and charged readers five cents per issue. In 1929 it merged with a rival student paper, became a daily publication (Tuesday through Sunday), and was renamed The Daily Tar Heel. The paper incorporated as DTH Media Corp, a separate 501(c)(3) nonprofit, in 1989, and in 1993 voluntarily stopped accepting university student fees, achieving full fiscal and editorial independence. Its alumni roster includes novelist Thomas Wolfe, CBS journalist Charles Kuralt, and two UNC presidents, giving it an outsized historical reputation for a college paper. Today the newsroom is staffed by more than 300 student journalists. Editorially, the paper has taken progressive stances on immigration enforcement, labor, and social policy, and in 2025–26 has been openly critical of the Trump administration's cuts to UNC research funding and its immigration enforcement actions against students.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-06-28; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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