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The Crimson White, known colloquially as "The CW," is the student-run newspaper of the University of Alabama. It is published four times a week -- every weekday except Tuesday -- throughout the fall and spring semesters and weekly during the summer semester. Its daily circulation in the fall and spring is about 15,000, and it is distributed across the UA campus and Tuscaloosa community.

The CW is part of UA's Office of Student Media (OSM), an auxiliary department overseen by the university's vice president for student affairs. The department also includes the Alabama Scholastic Press Association, the Corolla yearbook, the Black Warrior Review and Marr's Field Journal literary magazines, The Southern Historian history journal, and New Rock 90.7, the student-run radio station. The OSM director advises the newspaper staff but has no control over or responsibility for The CW's content. That burden falls to the editor.

The newspaper is editorially independent and runs almost entirely off advertising revenue. The CW's editor and advertising manager are selected annually by the 11-member Media Planning Board (MPB), whose membership includes students, faculty, and media professionals. The advertising manager hires sales representatives and advertisement designers, and the editor hires about 30 paid staff members and recruits volunteers. Depending on ad sales, the newspaper's daily size varies between eight pages and more than 20 pages.

The editorial board for the 2006-07 school year is composed of Editor, Marlin Cadell; Managing Editor: News, Mike Faulk; Opinions Editor, Jordan Pittman; and Managing Editor: Design, Callie Corley.

Cassie Edwards is the current advertising manager.

The CW began production in 1894 as "The Crimson-White" and derived its name from the team colors of UA athletics teams, crimson and white. The hyphen in the newspaper's name first disappeared from the masthead in the early 1960s and was gone for good by 1974. The paper originally was a weekly publication but added editions through the years until reaching its present four-days-a-week printing schedule by the 1980s.

The CW's first known female editor was Barbara Hodge in 1942-43. At least 18 women have held the paper's top job since then. The newspaper's first (and only, to date) black editor was Joseph Bryant, who served in 2000-01. Among CW editors who have gone on to greater fame are former U.S. Senator John Sparkman, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer Ron Casey, and Chicago Tribune legal affairs reporter Jan Crawford Greenburg. Other famous former CW staffers include longtime New York Yankees broadcaster Mel Allen, Crazy in Alabama author Mark Childress, and New Journalism pioneer Gay Talese.

The newspaper has a tradition of bold confrontation with authority figures, including UA administrators, city and state officials, and the Machine, a select coalition of traditionally white fraternities and sororities designed to influence campus politics. Machine members deny the group's very existence, but The CW named it in 1928 and has covered its behavior aggressively since the late 1960s. In addition to campus news coverage, the newspaper regularly localizes national stories, and it often reports on government affairs and breaking news in Tuscaloosa and Alabama. The CW's editorial board also frequently endorses candidates in Student Government Association elections and in city, state, and national elections.

The CW and its staff members have won numerous accolades through the years, including Collegiate Crown Awards and Gold Circle Awards. The newspaper also is regularly one of the top winners at the annual Southeastern Journalism Conference.

• The Crimson White Online