For 60 years Nouse has had its finger on the pulse of the stories shaping the lives of students. Whether it’s the highs and lows of the annual Roses competition, the politics of Student Union elections, or the powerful events affecting the wider world. 

As a tribute to the lasting influence it’s left on the lives of our alumni, we dive into the archives of this iconic student paper and share some alumni memories along the way!

1960s

1964 was the year Nouse was born. It was just the second year of the University of York, where there were little more than a few hundred students, and many of the campus buildings we know today were still being constructed in the Heslington soil.

Students such as Nigel Fountain had already set up a magazine titled ‘Eboracum’, but students Bryan Merton and Richard Mann decided they wanted to create something more immediate – where people could find out what was going on in York and beyond. Here’s how founder Bryan Merton recalls it:

“It took a philosophy lecture presented by a rather dull Australian professor for us to think of a name. Nouse gave us the phonetic news and at the same time a sense of place and identity by being conflated with the river Ouse running through the city.”

“We had none of the information technology taken for granted today – no mobile phones, no internet; only a manual typewriter, a Gestetner duplicating machine which inked my fingernails for weeks on end, and access to an office and telephone provided by the student union. We looked inwards at the university and outwards at the wider world.” 

Check out some excerpts from the 60s:

1970s

As the University evolved Nouse was at the forefront of every development. It reported on the opening of Wentworth college, a brand new student-union shop (where scones and bread could be purchased for just 5p), and the departure of the University’s first Vice-Chancellor Lord James.

The paper celebrated its 100th edition on May 30 1974, where prizes of whisky and £1 record tokens were offered to students who could come up with the most interesting photo captions!

Greg Dyke, former chancellor of the University and 13th Director-General of the BBC shared his favourite memory of writing for the paper in the 70s:

“When I was a student, I had a column for Nouse. During my time writing for them the York Evening Press refused to print something I had written because they thought it was ‘obscene’ – so I sued them for damaging my reputation as a journalist! They paid me £250, which was half the student grant in those days.”

1980s

According to the paper, around 88% of students read Nouse in 1982. So what was the student news of the 1980s like? As wider events took the world by storm, Nouse reported on the ‘threatening shadows of the nuclear war’ and protests across York. On the lighter side were Valentines day specials, and a regular ‘Nouseword’ offering the grand prize of the ‘Penguin book of Political Cartoons’. Why not take a look at the one featured below and see if you can take a guess?

Alumnus Mark Burton, now a screenwriter for Paddington in Peru, recalls his time at Nouse in the 80s:

“You’d turn up in the office and everyone would be using glue to stick things together. It was before the age of Macbooks and laptops.”

“I remember one funny anecdote where I sat down with the guy who ran all the gigs at York, and he told me he was booking some really big names. Like an eager young journalist, I wrote it all down and published it in Nouse. It was a disaster because it turned out he hadn’t booked any of them – he was just boasting. We had people ringing up to buy tickets for gigs that didn’t exist! It was the first time I realised the power of journalism.”

1990s

If you’re wondering what students in the 1990s wanted to read, highlights from Nouse’s 90s archive include: an article on RAG week hit squads and hypnotists in Central Hall, explaining the difference between the University of York and York University in Toronto, and a heartwarming story about Goodricke funding a housing centre for the homeless. Nouse and Vision also temporarily ended their rivalry as they shared a new publishing house on campus known as the ‘York Student Press’.

“My fondest memory is how I came to become involved with Nouse. At the time, I was in my second year living in a student house off campus with my then fiancée, Laura. She asked me what I intended to do with my life after university (a fair question). I responded, “I quite like writing. Maybe I’ll become a writer.”

She replied, “I don’t want to be married to some starving artist.” On her advice that I consider journalism, I applied to be a writer for Nouse the next day. I did in fact go into journalism here in the U.S. for 20-odd years after finishing my degree. Laura and I are still married.”

– Clifford Cumber, 1999 alum and now journalist in America

2000s

In 2002, Nouse entered the digital age and launched its own website, while paper continued to run its print editions, and even won the National Student Journalism Awards for best student paper in 2005. The decade also saw a slew of interviews with famous figures to list a few: Boris Johnson, Ross Noble, Salman Rushdie, Ian Brown, Nick Cave and many more.

“I honestly don’t think I’d have my current career if it hadn’t been for Nouse. Writing and editing the arts pages of Nouse got me hooked on journalism, introducing me to the endlessly satisfying puzzle of working out how best to tell a story, bring to life an interview, or evoke the experience of reading a book, watching a play, or going to a gig. 

And the people I met along the way weren’t bad either – from those who’d become future bosses or handy industry contacts to the many people I still count as close friends and even one long-term romantic relationship. Happy 60th birthday Nouse – and thank you for changing my life.”

– Holly Williams, 2007 alum and now freelance author, journalist, critic and editor

2010s

In 2011, Nouse started covering London Fashion Week under the arts section of the paper, Muse. It also began a series of events in 2012 with famous speakers such as Jeremy Paxman and George Galloway – which would eventually evolve into the York Dialectic Union!

2022 saw Nouse celebrated another milestone, its 500th edition, complete with a vintage-style cover and interviews with notable alumni. Speaking about the experience, former editor Lucy Cooper, who now works for marketing agency VCCP in London, described what it was like to work on edition: 

“The best part of working on the edition was definitely the vibes of the office – we had 8 extra pages which meant it was a big hustle for all the teams and required a lot of long hours, but we all banded together, with plenty of takeaway pizza to keep us going, and ended up making such an awesome edition with loads of exclusive interviews, taking away memories for life.”

The future of Nouse

In the span of 500 editions, Nouse has been a vital source of information for students and an important set of first steps into careers in journalism. Looking back at Nouse’s 60 year old archive is a time capsule of the stories that really matter to the people who studied here. As technology only develops further, who knows how Nouse will deliver the student news of tomorrow? 

Nouse are hosting a ‘diamond anniversary’ party on 30th November at SPARK in York. All Nouse alumni are welcome to attend, so if you’d like to book tickets, follow this link.

This article was made possible thanks to the help of Nouse, and the Borthwick Archives. Currently, anyone in our alumni community can get in touch with the Borthwick to view the old editions of Nouse on campus.

Unfortunately there are still many editions of the paper that are missing from the archives, and without the help of alumni, may remain that way. If you’d like to help other people gain access to this time capsule of student media, please contact the Borthwick by emailing university-archive@york.ac.uk or fill out the form.