Improvements in computer technology and falling print costs allowed many student papers to launch culture supplements in the 1990s and early 2000s. In The Courier‘s case this came in the form of Pulp, an A5-sized glossy magazine. The Courier‘s arts and music sections were shifted over to the magazine and joined by a new film section, freeing up more space in the main paper for news, sport and features.
Pulp was launched in September 2003 by the first female editor in 14 years, Jess Gooch. From now on the front and back pages were always printed in full colour, and midway through the year horoscopes, “the Thong” and agony aunts were all phased out. In their place came regular fashion, travel and TV features, although within a couple of years both fashion and TV had been dropped.
In 2004 colour was introduced to every page of the paper, while Pulp, now just a fortnightly publication, began to be distributed with The Courier. With letters to the editor becoming rarer and rarer, a comment page was added to the main paper, while the agony aunt page returned in 2005.
Faced with low readership as a separate publication, Pulp was turned into a 12-page pullout in The Courier in October 2005. It was redesigned on several occasions over the next three years, but always maintained a magazine style, even though it was now printed on newsprint.
The rest of the paper was still very much a tabloid, both in design and tone. Aside from news, comment, sport, travel and features, there were several “Stuff” pages: a motley montage of classified ads (briefly renamed “text The Courier”, but nobody did), vacancies, crosswords, horoscopes, agony aunts and interviews with graduates.
A third attempt at a Courier website went online in 2007. It was also during this period that graduation issues, published in July and featuring highlights from the past year, began.
Courier History 