students who waited for the train and paraded down College Avenue in Downtown State College to purchase their copy. The first issue of the news magazine was twelve pages long and was sold for fifteen cents a copy. Most of the articles inside of the Free Lance were opinion pieces on national events penned by professors and alumni of the university. Much of the news coverage coming from the publication had already become public knowledge by the time each monthly edition was released. The Free Lance mostly took an approach to filling in holes in stories and giving opinion on events rather than reporting them first hand. The Free Lance transitioned away from news and moved its focus to become a literary magazine publishing essays, poems and short stories in 1895. This move would inevitable lead the already cash strapped publication to collapse. In April 1901, as subscribers declined the Free Lance begged for support from the university, students, and alumni to continue its publication. Throughout the next three years editors continued to asks for financial support and payment from delinquent subscribers. The requests were not met and the magazine concluded publication with its April 1904 edition, which did not appear on campus until May of that year. The State Collegian The semester after publication ceased on the Free Lance its former editor and much of the former periodical's staff founded the State Collegain, a weekly newspaper. The newspaper was established independent of University control and produced its first issue in October 1904. In its first edition the State Collegain Editor William B. Hoke penned an editorial outlining the decline of the Free Lance and how this new paper would be different. Hoke outlined a mission to have a paper that contained news and events from around the community citing the failure of its predecessor to its shift away from news based content. The paper was published once a week on Thursdays, added photos and began printing in broadsheet form rather than on tabloid-size paper. The paper was printed by Nittany Printing and Publishing Co., publishers of the State College Times (now the Centre Daily Times) where the State Collegian shared a downtown office with the State College paper. Penn State Collegian In 1911, the State Collegian made the decision to change its masthead and publication name to Penn State Collegian to be more definite and expressive of its location