Epigram - Bristol University

The print edition of Epigram appears around Bristol University every fortnight on Mondays. It is a free, full-colour, tabloid-size, 44-page paper produced entirely by a team of around 30 senior editorial and production staff and around 100 writers. All staff work voluntarily in a small office on the third floor of the Students’ Union Building, Queens Road, Clifton, Bristol.

The paper comprises ten sections: News, News Features and Comment make up the front of the paper; the review section covers Music, Film, TV, Radio and the Arts; E2 is the entertainment features section; Fashion and Agony each take one page per issue and the back five pages are dedicated to Sport Comment and sport reporting. For each section, a team of photographers supply high-quality original images, including ‘image of the fortnight’. Before each issue goes to print it is also worked on by a team of proofreaders and subeditors. Epigram is printed at Paddock Print, Gloucester.

The Epigram website was rebuilt in 2007 and now offers readers the opportunity to comment on every article in the paper. In addition there are video and audio items and a number of blogs which are kept updated by the section editors. The site also provides Epigram with a platform to conduct surveys and polls on student life in Bristol. The accessible electronic archive dates back to Issue 0000 (0000). There are plans to make available the entire archive at some point in the next two years.

Epigram is fortunate enough to be editorially independent of the Students’ Union and the University. In the recent past it has been able to use this independence to inform students about issues such as Union debt (Issue 193) and proposed University plans to revoke Union autonomy (Issue 198). While the paper feels free to criticise both establishments, it is unlikely that it will ever adopt a genuinely anti-Union or anti-University stance, being as the office facilities are provided by the Union and the education of the editors is provided by the University.

For the 200th edition Epigram produced a three-page summary of some of the best articles in its 20-year history. The feature can be found through the archive page on the site - Issue 200.

Any student at the University of Bristol is welcome to write articles for Epigram. All the relevant contact details can be found below. Any letters should be sent to comment@epigram.org.uk. Recruitment for next year’s editorial and production team takes place a few weeks after the Easter vacation.