About Us

A College Media Network History

1999-2000

Emerson alum Kai Pradel, Karstan Robbins and Jon Block develop and implement innovative software to bring Emerson’s Berkeley Beacon online. Their venture, College Publisher, is the first content management solution designed specifically for the needs of the campus newsroom.

2001

Respected student newspapers like Syracuse’s Daily Orange, Ohio State’s The Lantern and University of Connecticut’s Daily Campus hop onboard as College Publisher begins developing into the industry gold standard.

2002

College Publisher becomes a part of Y2M, a youth media and marketing network, and continues bringing in increased funding and support. The merger introduces major national advertisers including Ford, Apple and 20th Century Fox to the power of the campus publication.

2003-2004

College Publisher hits one million affiliate subscribers. With more than 250 affiliates and an unrivaled offering, College Publisher establishes itself as the definitive campus media solution.

2005

College Publisher buys New Digital Group, bringing more than 230 new publications into the CP family. Papers like University of Georgia’s The Red and Black, The Michigan Daily, and The Daily Pennsylvanian join the College Publisher network.

CP V 4.0 is launched with Web-based multiple-user control over content management, multimedia administration and online advertising.

2006

mtvU acquires the company in September. mtvU’s deep domain expertise and strong working relationships with more than 750 universities immediately helps drive growth of the network from 450 to 500 affiliate publications.

2007

mtvU introduces the College Media Network, powered by the College Publisher content management solution.

College Media Network brings more enhancements and resources to its 500+ affiliates, including:

  • an interactive Dynamic News Module that makes the most popular, read, and commented on articles simple to identify and access
  • deployment of content distribution network, Akamai, across the network to deliver content faster than previously possible

2008

CMN starts off hitting a milestone, when 550th paper signs onto the network, and continues on as that number rises to nearly 600.

Launch of CP5, a brand new publishing platform and content management system, will enable papers to interact with readers in more meaningful ways and introduce many new, easy-to-use features.