Editing Collegiate Press Service

{{Short description|US news agency}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox company
| name =  Collegiate Press Service
| former_names = College Press Service<br />College Press Exchange (1991–{{circa}} 1999)
| logo = 
| type = [[News agency]]
| industry = [[Student publication]]s
| fate =
| predecessor = <!-- or: | predecessors = -->
| successor =   
| founded = {{start date and age|1962}}
| founders = 
| defunct = {{end date and age|1999}}
| hq_location_city = (1962–1971) [[Washington, D.C.]]<br />(1971–{{circa}} 1991) [[Denver]]<br />({{circa}} 1991–{{circa}} 1999) [[Chicago]]
| hq_location_country = U.S.
| area_served = United States
| key_people = Bill Sonn, [[Floyd Norris]] (writer), [[Pete Wagner]] (cartoonist), [[Ed Stein (cartoonist)|Ed Stein]] (cartoonist)
| products = News articles and graphics
| owner = [[United States Student Press Association|USSPA]] (1962–1971)<br />[[Worker cooperative]] (1971–1978)<br />Interrobang, Inc. (1978–1990)<br />[[Tribune Media Services]] (1990–{{circa}} 1999)
| num_employees = 
| num_employees_year = <!-- Year of num_employees data (if known) -->
| parent = 
| website = 
}}
'''Collegiate Press Service''', also called '''College Press Service''' ('''CPS'''), was a [[news agency]] supplying stories to [[student newspaper]]s. It operated under various owners and names from 1962 to {{circa}} 1999.

== History ==
=== United States Student Press Association ===
Collegiate Press Service began in 1962 as the news agency of the [[United States Student Press Association]] (USSPA),<ref>{{cite news|url=https://nyti.ms/3HJgUzp|title=RISING UNREST|work=The New York Times|date=April 4, 1965|page=191}}</ref> which at the time was receiving support and covert financing from [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] organizations like ''[[Reader's Digest]]'' and the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]].<ref name="cia">{{cite news|last=Crewdson|first=John M.|date=December 27, 1977|title=C.I.A. established many links to journalists in U.S. and abroad |newspaper=The New York Times|page=1|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/27/archives/cia-established-many-links-to-journalists-in-us-and-abroad-cias.html|accessdate=January 20, 2009}}</ref><ref>Berlet, p. 282.</ref> CPS was originally based in [[Washington, D.C.]]

As the decade moved along, CPS drifted more [[Progressivism|leftward]], but in the summer of 1967, two [[Far-left politics|radical]] staff members of CPS — [[Ray Mungo]] and [[Marshall Bloom]] — were purged from the USSPA; they immediately established the [[alternative news agency]] [[Liberation News Service]] (LNS).<ref>{{cite book|last=McMillian|first= John Campbell|title=Smoking Typewriters: the Sixties Underground Press and the Rise of Alternative Media in America|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|date=2014|ISBN=9780199376469}}</ref>

=== Worker cooperative; move to Denver ===
When USSPA suffered financial setbacks in 1971 (eventually going defunct), CPS was spun off and became a progressive news collective in [[Denver]], Colorado.<ref name=Berlet285 /> (CPS continued to have a D.C. office until 1973, when the [[Dispatch News Service]] went defunct and CPS had to leave their shared office space.)<ref>Berlet, pp. 286–287.</ref>

In April 1978, CPS dissolved, selling its name (and client list) to two enduring advocates, cartoonist [[Ed Stein (cartoonist)|Ed Stein]] and writer Bill Sonn, and distributing funds from the sale to progressive groups in Denver.<ref name=Berlet285>Berlet, p. 285.</ref>

=== Interrobang ===
Stein and Sonn converted the operation to a commercial enterprise, adding '''High School News & Graphics''' to its college and university press service.

Stein remained as co-publisher of CPS<ref name=DP>{{cite news|last=Stratton|first=Jim|url=https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-19920403-1992-04-03-9204030016-story.html |title=POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS IRRITATE CARTOONIST|work=[[Daily Press (Virginia)|Daily Press]]|date=Apr 3, 1992}}</ref> for only a short time, as he was appointed as the staff editorial cartoonist of the ''[[Rocky Mountain News]]'' later in 1978.<ref name="Ed Stein Cartoonist Profile">{{cite web|publisher=[[Association of American Editorial Cartoonists]]|url=http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoonist/profile.cfm/SteinE/|title=AAEC - Cartoonist Profile: Ed Stein|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221184113/https://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoonist/profile.cfm/SteinE/|archive-date=Dec 21, 2018}}</ref> Sonn renamed the whole operation '''Interrobang, Inc.''', with himself as President and CEO.<ref name=Interrobang>{{cite web|title=Bill Sonn, Author and Writer|url=https://www.linkedin.com/in/billsonn/details/experience/|publisher=[[LinkedIn]]|access-date=Jan 29, 2024}}</ref>

In 1990,<ref name=Interrobang /> Interrobang (and CPS) was acquired by [[Tribune Media Services]] (TMS), with Sonn staying on as CEO.

=== Tribune Media Services; College Press Exchange ===
In May 1991,<ref name=Interrobang /> TMS renamed CPS to '''College Press Exchange''', Interrobang was dissolved,<ref name=Interrobang /> and Sonn left the organization. At that point, it was supplying news and graphics to 600 college newspapers and 400 high schools with a staff of three and dozens of freelance writers and cartoonists.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

In {{circa}} 1999, CPE was absorbed into the syndicate's existing service "'''tms Campus'''."{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

== References ==
=== Notes ===
{{reflist}}

=== Sources ===
* {{cite book|chapter=Muckraking Gadflies Buzz Reality|title=Insider Histories of the Vietnam Era Underground Press|editor-first=Ken|editor-last=Wachsberger|date=2011|series=Voices from the Underground, Part 1|publisher= [[Michigan State University Press]]|first=Chip|last=Berlet|author-link=Chip Berlet|isbn=978-0870139833|location=[[East Lansing, Michigan]]|pages=267–297}}
* {{cite book|last=Mungo|first= Raymond|author-link=Ray Mungo|date= 1970|title=Famous Long Ago: My Life and Hard Times with Liberation News Service|location=Boston|publisher=[[Beacon Press]]|isbn=978-0807061831}}
* {{cite book|title=Insider Histories of the Vietnam Era Underground Press|editor-first=Ken |editor-last=Wachsberger|publisher=MSU Press|date=2011 |location=East Lansing, MI|isbn=978-0870139833|series=Voices from the Underground, Part 1}}

[[Category:News agencies based in the United States]]
[[Category:Student newspapers published in the United States|*]]

{{Journalism-stub}}