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Current (newspaper)

newspaper

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ16953299
Source-derived summary

Current started as an American trade journal that covers public broadcasting in the United States. It was described by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in 2003 as "The most widely read periodical in the field". It was formerly published by Current LLC and is currently published by the American University School of Communication, where it covers all nonprofit media. The newspaper, founded in 1980, was one of the last creations of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters, an association of noncommercial broadcasters dating back to 1925, whose members were leaders in founding PBS and National Public Radio. After the bankrupted NAEB closed in 1981, Current resumed publication in 1982 as an independent journalistic service of the public television station WNET. WNET.org sold Current to American University School of Communication in 2010. In 2014, Julia Drizin became the executive director.

Editorial summary

“Current (newspaper)” enters the record as newspaper. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Current and newspaper can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2003, 1980, 1925, 1981—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1980-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Current and newspaper.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Current (newspaper)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Current and newspaper provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16953299. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2003, 1980, 1925 and 1981.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Current (newspaper)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Current (newspaper) primary sources, Current (newspaper) archive and Current research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Current (newspaper)”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Current (newspaper)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.