In 2007, Richard “Ricky” Thompson was elected editor-in-chief of The Northeastern News. During his tenure, he led the charge on one of the most significant changes in the paper’s century of operation: making it independent from the university.

Thompson joined The Northeastern News, now The Huntington News, his first year in college without any prior journalism experience, working his way up from staff writer to news editor and finally editor-in-chief. 

“[Journalism] was something that I was interested in, but I didn’t have experience with it,” Thompson said. “So the experience being at The News was kind of my first exposure to it; to be able to learn from the other reporters and others there … I think, for me and for other people, it gave us our first lessons, and it was really the experience that would help us build upon it through class and through co-op.”

When Thompson joined The News, its office was housed on the fourth floor of the Curry Student Center. It held one large newsroom and individual offices for the editor-in-chief, photo staff and other editorial board positions.

The Northeastern News published one print issue a week, which sometimes reached up to 40 pages. Additionally, The News was publishing articles on its website, then called nu-news.com, for the first time. This made it necessary for staff to meet often and have a large place to convene.

“There was a big table where everybody would gather around the copy editors, and people would come in and they talked to editors about their stories,” Thompson said.

The space was managed by the Office of Student Affairs, now Student Life, and The News’ administrative adviser worked for Student Affairs, too. In 2007, Student Affairs required The News to move to a smaller, second-floor space in the student center, only one-third the size of the former newsroom, in order to move its own offices to the larger space.

As rising editor-in-chief at the time, Thompson commented on the downsizing of the office in an article published in The News: “The News should have been provided adequate time and careful planning to allow for flexibility in the changing atmosphere of the modern newsroom. Instead, we were pressured to choose from three options that were based on availability, not research, and our office space was reduced from 2,527 to 941 square feet.”

The decrease in newsroom space was the first of many factors that contributed to The News’ decision to become independent.

One of the primary reasons The News became independent from the university was to maintain editorial freedom. Staff worried about the possibility of having articles reviewed by the administration before publication, which would hinder the objectivity of their reporting. 

“There was some discussion … within Student Affairs about potentially having [The News’] adviser review articles, or having somebody review some articles before they came out,” Thompson said. “I think it stemmed from one of the other [on-campus] media groups publishing something that was controversial and maybe not well-reported. It wasn’t something that we had done, but that started to look like it could become more of a policy or more of an issue that would come forward.”

With the looming threat of prior review from the administration and the unwanted relocation of the newsroom, Thompson began to set in motion plans for The News’ independence. 

At the time, The News sustained itself through advertising and had between $100,000 and $150,000 in its bank account. Since it was financially independent, the idea of editorial independence was even more appealing and realistic. 

The Northeastern News became The Huntington News in September 2008, shortly after Thompson graduated. The News was named after Huntington Avenue, where Northeastern’s main campus is located. The staff also began meeting at a rented property on Huntington Avenue, which was above Boston House of Pizza and Huntington Wine and Spirits. 

Along with its independence, The News established World Series Way Publishing Company, the nonprofit under which The News now operates.

“[Student journalism] fills a critical need on the campus to keep people informed, keep the student government honest, keep people abreast about changes the university might be considering so that maybe they can have a voice in it before it comes to pass,” Thompson said. 

During his time with The News, Thompson wrote many notable articles, including some covering Northeastern’s football program before it was cut in 2009, which garnered attention and protests from alumni.

Thompson was also interested in publishing the newspaper twice a week instead of once, which was one of the primary focuses of his campaign for editor-in-chief along with making The News independent.

“[It was] also just the idea of trying to be able to elevate The News to the level that our peers are at BU or BC or these other schools, so that it can really, truly, be like a laboratory for learning; where you’re running a business, you have the experience of running the books, selling ads and then also having the newspaper and everything that comes with that, and actually giving students the opportunity to run a small business,” Thompson said.

Thompson also interviewed President Joseph E. Aoun before The News went independent. The interview was published in the paper as a transcript, and Thompson recalls there was less of an open dialogue with Aoun after this decision. 

“I think there’s a lot of value in the university having an open line of communication with student leaders who are putting the time in to report and create information and have the newspaper, which is to the benefit of the university community,” Thompson said. “So why you wouldn’t want to have more of a dialogue and bring them into the fold, is a good question.”

The last time Aoun spoke with The Huntington News was December 2022. Prior to 2020, it had been seven years since the president had done an interview with The News.

Thompson did two co-ops at The Boston Globe during his time at Northeastern, where he picked up shifts during his semesters in classes and freelanced for a year after graduating. He was a reporter for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans from 2009 to 2013 before joining The New Orleans Advocate, where he remained for five and a half years. 

Thompson earned his master’s of business administration at HEC Paris Business School in 2020 and worked in communications at the International Chamber of Commerce for a year after. He now works at IBM Consulting in analyst relations.

“The News was a really great experience for me because [it] gave me the opportunity to actually learn by doing, and to get the experience, to learn from each other, to learn from what we’re doing in the classroom and to actually put it into motion,” he said.