History
Concrete is the student newspaper of the University of East Anglia (UEA). It began in 1992, under the initiative of student entrepreneur Stephen Howard. At first, Concrete was a free-of-charge, 20 page tabloid newspaper, with a print run of 5,000. The cost of this was financed entirely through advertising.
A year later, in 1993, Howard formed a company (known as Planet Zog Ltd.) to run Concrete and its sister publication The Event. At the time, The Event was an ambitious entertainment guide for the city of Norwich, with a print run of 10,000.
By March 1994, the workload and financial responsibilities were proving too much for what was essentially still a student-run operation, and negotations were begun with the Union of UEA Students for a potential buy-out.
In July 1994, the Union bought out all of Concrete's production equipment, provided a grant to cover the shortfall between operating costs and advertising revenue, and contracted the existing production team to work on the newspaper.
A year later, the production team put a proposal forward to the Management Committee of the Union for a paid editor. This was finally, and reluctantly, agreed to on 29 August 1995.
The first paid editor was Niall Hampton, and as part of his contract he was employed on a 37 week contract, at an equivalent rate to the salary being paid to the Union's full-time officers.
Since 1995 Concrete has operated with a paid editor in place, and this role has been open to all students of the University as a sabbatical position, and UEA graduates. In terms of the selection process, the position is normally advertised in February/March and chosen immediately prior to the Easter Holidays.
Concrete has been nominated for a number of awards during its twenty year history, notably winning "Newspaper of the Year" at the 1995 Guardian/NUS Student Media Awards. In 2000, Concrete was nominated for "Newspaper of the Year" at the Guardian Media Awards, and the following year, 2001, it was the runner-up in the Independent/NUS National Student Journalism Awards.
In 2001 Concrete was briefly banned by the Union for the publication of an advertisement by then editor Katie Hind (current Showbiz editor of The People newspaper) which offered students a free lap dance at a lap-dancing club in the city.