Welcome to information about The Harvard Crimson's comp. The Crimson, Cambridge’s only breakfast table daily, is published five days per week. The paper includes news about Harvard and from around the world, as well as daily editorial and sports sections. In addition, it runs daily features on the Faculty, student life, the region and more. The Crimson also publishes a popular weekend magazine called Fifteen Minutes, distributed on Thursdays, and a weekly Arts section, distributed on Fridays.
The Harvard Crimson is a multi-million-dollar corporation. Funded by subscriptions and advertising revenue, The Crimson is independent of the University. The Crimson operates out of its own building located at 14 Plympton Street, which houses its own printing presses, making it one of the few college newspapers in the country that publishes on its premises.
Writing for The Crimson offers students an opportunity to meet speakers like former Vice President Al Gore ’69, former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Senator Evan Bayh, Senator John Kerry, President Barack Obama, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, and former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole. Reporters also have had the chance to cover national stories like the arrest of Unabomber Ted J. Kaczynski ’62 and the 2000 and 2008 Presidential campaigns.
Former Crimson editors include: Franklin D. Roosevelt, class of 1904, John F. Kennedy ’40, Caspar W. Weinberger ’38, Michael Crichton ’64, Linda Greenhouse ’68, James M. Fallows ’70, Frank Rich '71, Michael E. Kinsley ’72, Steven A. Ballmer ’77, Mark T. Whitaker '79, Susan Faludi ’81, Nicholas D. Kristof '82 and Jeffrey A. Zucker '86. Former “Crimeds” have gone on to positions at The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, among other national and international papers and newsmagazines. Business Crimeds consistently secure spots at top investment banking and consulting firms.
The Crimson is also a community. When the weather warms up, editors come together for barbecues on the building’s spacious roof deck or for a game of softball against Harvard’s other extracurricular groups.
“Comping” the Harvard Crimson
The “comp” is the official way to become an editor of The Harvard Crimson. Crimson comps are designed for you to learn while having fun and meeting new people. The word “comp” does not imply “competition,” it stands for “competency.” Anyone who demonstrates competency in completing the requirements of the comp will be elected an editor of The Harvard Crimson. Once elected an editor of The Crimson, you are always considered an editor.
There are nine different boards you can comp: News, Arts, Business, Editorial, Design, Sports, Photo, Information Technology and Fifteen Minutes. Each board’s comps run independently of the others, though content compers learn some of the same material.
Comps are scheduled to be roughly 10 weeks in length, although there is no time limit. You can finish the comp at your own pace; don’t feel obligated to spend all of your time at The Crimson in order to finish under some strict deadline. At the same time, we hope to create an environment that you enjoy working in.
The goals of each comp are twofold: first, to teach you the requisite skills to be a productive part of the staff (whether as a reporter, photographer, designer or business associate); second, to get you acclimated to the culture, the traditions, the idiosyncrasies and the people that make up The Harvard Crimson.
Crimson editors are a diverse group of people with a wide variety of interests. We throw parties, play softball, see plays and hold barbeques. We often joke that we have the best academic advising on campus.
The Crimson offers a wealth of resources, knowledge and friendships. It has a rich history that extends back through the heart of the Harvard experience. Friendships formed here can last for a lifetime.
The Boards
The Crimson’s nine boards perform their own function in the day-to-day activities of the paper.
News
When news happens at Harvard, people turn to The Crimson for the story. The News Board is responsible for the bulk of reporting that goes into each day’s paper. Our reporters regularly interview President Faust and other campus movers and shakers and cover breaking news wherever and whenever it occurs. Big stories of the past year have included the Hasty Pudding Theatricals embezzlement scandal, Cornel West’s acrimonious departure from Harvard and Harvard’s controversial reform of its early admissions policy. Some of our best reporters have gone on to write for The New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
Compers learn interviewing and reporting techniques as well as writing and editing skills. In addition, compers gain experience in laying out the daily. By the end of the comp, reporters will have drastically improved their communication and research abilities, as well as their knowledge of the inner-workings of Harvard.
Editorial
The Editorial Board is responsible for producing the editorial/opinion section of the paper. We write staff editorials, columns and opinion pieces and are lucky enough to receive angry letters from disgruntled Crimson readers. Through the editorial comp, you will learn how to write editorials, edit pieces and lay out the editorial page. After we’re done with you, you will be a pithier writer and, hopefully, a sharper thinker.
Sports
Harvard has more varsity sports than any other school in the country, and somebody’s got to cover them. That’s where we come in. In addition to daily sports pages Tuesday through Friday, a sports section runs on Mondays to cover all of the major sports events of the weekend. You will interview players and coaches, then return to impersonate them during sports meetings. You will go on exciting road trips and might even go to the NCAA playoffs, on us. After finishing your painless and surprisingly pleasant comp, you’ll get to come up with a catchy column name, and tell Harvard exactly what you feel about whatever you want. Crimson Sports: it’s the REAL “best damn sports show,” period.
Business
The Harvard Crimson Business Board provides unparalleled business experience for Harvard undergraduates. For over 130 years, The Crimson has provided the best opportunity for undergraduates to run their own business, without any outside intervention. Business executives regularly go on to the best business schools and secure the most sought-after jobs. The Business Board has four student-managed departments: Advertising, Circulation, Contract Printing, and Operations. We are also dedicated to exploring new ideas and investing in new projects. The business comp lasts 10 weeks and requires about four to six hours a week to complete.
Design
The Design Board is responsible for the professional presentation of The Crimson’s publications. This includes the front and feature pages of the daily paper as well as Arts, FM, Sports and supplemental publications. We lay out pages and prepare all graphs and graphics. The design comp teaches some of the most marketable skills around: layout with Adobe InDesign, photo manipulation with Adobe Photoshop and graphic creation with Adobe Illustrator. The 10-week comp consists of weekly meetings, training sessions and supervised time for exercise completion. Compers work with existing editors when they first begin designing pages for publication. After graduating from the comp, newly elected editors often choose to work closely with one section of The Crimson, be it Sports, FM, Arts or the daily.
Photo
When you comp the Photo Board you gain unparalleled access to the events that shape Harvard. Photo compers routinely take the photographs that appear on the front page of The Crimson each day and in the weekly Sports, Arts and FM sections. Comping the Photo Board will give you access to sporting events from the sidelines, concerts and other performances at venues ranging from Axis to Sanders, and major news events such as the criminal hearings in last year’s Hasty Pudding scandal and speeches by heads-of-state such as former President Clinton and President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan. Just as exciting as the events you will cover is the knowledge of photography you will gain. Our compers generally start with no photographic experience and learn photojournalism using The Crimson’s cameras and equipment. Within the past semester, we have transitioned to a line of professional-grade, digital SLR cameras, which has revolutionized photography at The Crimson more profoundly than any change since 1941, when photographs were first printed in the paper. By the end of the comp, you will have learned the basics of both color and black-and-white photography, including how to adjust camera settings manually, how to expose your photos for different lighting conditions, how to improve your photos in both technical and stylistic content and how to edit photos in Adobe Photoshop.
Information Technology
The Information Technology group manages all of the technology behind The Harvard Crimson and its online counterpart, and is responsible for keeping The Crimson up to date and competitive on a professional level. Working with all other divisions of The Crimson, including content and business departments, compers will learn valuable technology and management skills as they apply to the new information age. Topics covered include web development and web design, server and network management, online security, software development and database design. The theory of informational structure and optimal structural design as it applies to all areas is taught and stressed. This is an excellent chance to apply previous computer experience to real-world problems in a fun, low-stress environment. Depending on interests, compers may specialize further in a particular field or area. All skill levels are welcome; technology novices will be able to learn basic skills at their own pace through training sessions and exercises, while those with significant technology experience can accelerate through the comp and quickly find themselves in project leadership roles.
Arts
Featuring the perfect blend of colorful writing, investigative reporting, and cultural elitism, the newly resurrected Arts board publishes an eight-page weekly section covering the artistic life of Harvard and Cambridge. Hob-nob with famous alumni in the arts; find out who’s who and what’s what with the musicians, dancers, actors, painters and other artistic figures around town and on campus; cover the events, personalities and venues that make artistic life sizzle. Our eye-catching section will give you the chance to learn how to do cutting-edge cultural analysis with a serious and seriously witty writing style.
Fifteen Minutes (FM)
Fifteen Minutes, or FM for short, is the award-winning weekend magazine of The Harvard Crimson. Often described as “awesome, “super-awesome” and even “über-awesome” (by the European literati), FM rings in the week’s end every Thursday with a wide range of in-depth reporting, human interest features, provocative commentary, incisive reviews and completely fabricated gossip. FM complements the daily paper with its fresh magazine-style approach to news and entertainment and eye-catching design.
CRIMSON COMP FAQs
How long is the comp?
Each board has its own comp requirements, so the amount of work required varies. However, each comp is structured so you can finish in one semester. Many of our compers also decide to take longer than a semester to complete their comp, which is also fine. The important thing is finishing.
What happens when I finish my comp?
The Crimson holds Grand Elections at the end of the semester to elect as editors of The Crimson compers who have fulfilled all of their chosen board’s requirements. At this point, you become a full member of the organization, making you eligible to vote on staff editorial positions.
Is comping The Crimson a lot of work?
It can be, but Crimson editors will attest that the experience is well worth the effort.
I’m pretty busy. Why shouldn’t I just comp another publication?
Because The Crimson is the only daily newspaper in Cambridge and the only student-run daily in the University. Crimeds sometimes joke that they major in The Crimson, but working here really does provide undergraduates with the best possible introduction to journalism. The Crimson enjoys widespread respect for being the best college daily in the nation; this recognition comes from professional media organizations as well as other college newspapers. One recent example of why we continue to garner such respect is our scoop on the Harvard presidential search, where our news reporters beat the entire world on news of Larry Summers’ selection. Our weekend magazine Fifteen Minutes is the only campus publication that offers a true glimpse into student life. Deans say our editorial board is Harvard’s true student government. Our sports section is literally the only source of Harvard sports news. Our designers have won award after national award. Our information technology board is carrying out one of the largest digital archiving projects in newspaper history. Our business staff runs a multi-million dollar corporation before continuing on to top business firms. Simply put, there is no other organization on campus that offers the same type of complete professional journalism experience that The Crimson does.
Is comping The Crimson all work and no play?
Absolutely not. Besides Crimson-wide Happy Hours and blow-out parties every Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day, we offer several amenities: a large-screen cable TV, powerful stereo systems and several fridges stocked with tasty beverages. Needless to say, people hang around the building even when they’re not working on the paper.
I’d like to comp The Crimson, but I need a job that pays. Will I have enough time to do both?
It requires dedication, but many people have done so. We have varsity athletes and working students who regularly contribute to the paper. In addition, elected editors are eligible to receive financial aid scholarships from The Crimson, allowing you to fulfill your work-study requirement right here at 14 Plympton Street.