A Clutch of New Publications at LSE

If you were concerned about the potential shuttering of the London Student, you may not have to worry too much. If a stroll down Houghton Street today is any indication, there are several new student publications coming to the LSE this term. The first one that caught my eye in the Three Tuns today was a soiled copy of the LSE Sanctuary, apparently a student publication with roots in Nottingham (the best link we can provide is to a website for the Sanctuary‘s sports section, as the main site appears to be offline). The publication, which is not without its share of controversy at various university campuses throughout Britain, tends more towards the satire and cultural side of reportage, with a brief news and opinion section at the back of the paper, as opposed to the traditional position up front.

The publication, which is free, is chock full of advertisements, including a pair of banners on the cover page. This can lead to one of a couple conclusions: either the quality of the paper is crap and they need to fill out pages with ads, they are looking to make a mint with ads, or they have a strong enough central ad sales department to stay in the game for some time. Considering how the Sanctuary was banned from the campus of Warwick for its commercial nature, it may come up as a problem here at the LSE as well. Still, nothing wrong with introducing more voices to the scene on Houghton Street, as this very blog has been trying to do.

The second new publication to come to our attention is the fornightly Gateway, with the tag line “Business and finance for students, by students.” With a mission like that, the LSE does seem like an ideal destination for the pinksheet. Cover stories in this issue (which is billed as number 5) include an investigation of the rise of emerging market economies with a cheeky picture of Mao superimposed with a McDonalds cup. The paper, like the Sanctuary, is replete with full page advertisements from the recruitment wings of investment banks like PriceWaterhouseCooper and consultancy firms like Ersnt & Young. To give the paper a bit of an edge, check out the letter from the editor Mawuli Ladzekpo, where he makes cocky references to Britains “other” leading pink newspaper (the FT, which is itself another advertiser..).

It should be interesting to see how the Students Union and the Beaver respond to the new kids on the block.