As a new student, you’ll be delighted to find that you can get your free news fix, five days a… As a new student, you’ll be delighted to find that you can get your free news fix, five days a week, from The Pitt News, your handy-dandy, independent newspaper. It’s put out by, and largely for, students, and you’ll find it distributed about campus, in easy finding distance for those of you trudging to class a little late.

While you’re checking out free news goodies, however, it’s worth looking at some of Pittsburgh’s other free publications, which cover arts, entertainment, news and humor. This big city will be your home for the next four — or five, or six, or sixty — years, so you might as well get acclimated.

For city news in a style different than Pittsburgh’s standard newspapers — the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Pittsburgh Tribune Review — you can pick up a free copy of the weekly alternative Pittsburgh City Paper. Within these tabloid-size pages, you’ll find local news stories, national brief reports, classified ads and reviews or announcements concerning film, food and music. City Paper also includes tidbits about Pittsburgh’s history, a section for locals to “Rant” about any kind of annoyance and weekly updates of the syndicated column Savage Love. You can find a new City Paper in boxes around Pittsburgh every Thursday, or online at www.pghcitypaper.com.

If too much news just gets you down, but the arts inspire you, you can check out the less newsy Pulp, Pittsburgh’s two-year-old alternative weekly, which also comes out on Thursdays. Pulp also offers national news briefs, often-featurey cover stories and plenty of dirt on the local music, arts and dining scenes. This shorter newspaper also includes a weekly dose of astrological predictions and current events in the Pittsburgh entertainment scene, as much of the paper is dedicated to Pittsburgh’s more artistic — and hungry — side. It’s available in boxes around Pittsburgh and also online at www.pittsburghpulp.com.

If you find yourself turning to The Onion, instead of The New York Times, for your national news coverage needs, you’ll want to check out Oakland’s own satirical newspaper, Souf Oaklin’ fo’ Life!!! The publication, which spoofs Pitt and the beer-soaked netherworld of bars and grungy student dwellings that border it, was created in the summer of 2001 by four Class of 1999 Pitt alumni.

Born in Denny’s Bar, a South Oakland establishment, the paper has tackled fictitious stories including: Mr. T joining the Oakland Business Improvement District’s Oakland A-Team; Taco Bell selecting Oakland panhandler Sombrero Man as its local spokesperson; and Pennsylvania Gov. Mark Schweiker clarifying that his youth-targeted “Stay, Invent Pa.” ad campaign was meant for graduates of Carnegie Mellon University, not Pitt. The publication, which comes out almost every month in the fall and spring, is available at select spots around campus, including Hillman Library, and some establishments in South Oakland. For those who don’t enter South Oakland, but still want to read about it, it’s available at www.soufoaklin.com.

For people looking for something a little different from anything else in Pittsburgh, a good starting point awaits at The New Yinzer, an online publication offering “new and experimental” work that the editors hope will be unlike any other writing available in the ‘Burgh. Created in January 2002 and run by Pitt writing alumni, the publication has a decidedly educational bent to its mission, which aims to encourage discussions about writing among readers and to offer a “working classroom” in which writers can bounce around their ideas. As the title implies — “Yinzer” describes those using the regional, Western Pennsylvania dialect that includes the term “yinz” in place of “you all” — the magazine targets writers in Pittsburgh and the surrounding region. A new issue of the magazine appears the first Wednesday of every month, and those seeking more can look forward to books printed at least twice a year and a monthly radio show called “The New Yinzer on WRCT.”

While The Pitt News offers an editorially and financially independent paper aimed largely at the University community, a number of other University-affiliated publications exist to delight you in and out of class. The University Times, written by Pitt’s faculty, offers news stories concerning Pitt and the University scene. The Pitt Chronicle, put out by Pitt’s Office of Public Affairs, offers a more consistently rosy view of Pitt. Pitt publishes both weekly newspapers, which are available around campus and at www.pitt.edu/utimes/ut and www.umc.pitt.edu/media/pcc, respectively.

Pitt’s Honors College also sponsors three publications, each of which usually publishes twice a year and is edited and produced entirely by students. The Pittsburgh Undergraduate Review, established more than 20 years ago to publish outstanding undergraduate papers that might otherwise never make it beyond professors’ file folders, receives submissions on a variety of topics from across the country. Pitt faculty members act as “referees” in the publication process, offering thorough critiques of accepted submissions before they go to publication.

Three Rivers Review, which has been printing fiction and poetry pieces for a handful of years, seeks to print “the best undergraduate writing available” from students enrolled in any of Pitt’s colleges or campuses.

Collision, which offers poetry, photography and prose from the creative nonfiction side of the fence, has also been around for a few years. This journal publishes the work of Pitt students, as well as pieces from writers outside of Pittsburgh. All three Honors College publications offer various cash prizes for the strongest published submissions.

The newest student-directed publication, deekMagazine, offers something of an unnewsy alternative to Souf Oaklin’ fo’ Life!!! The literary magazine, which is available at www.deekmagazine.com, is “sympathetic to the needs of starving artists everywhere, and people who like to pretend they’re starving,” according to Editor Matt Stroud. Aiming toward what Stroud described as “elegant madness,” the editors and writers at deek combine satire and fiction to create an offbeat, aggressive publication that tackles “progressive opinions and reports on topics other papers wouldn’t even think about touching,” Stroud said.

Whether you’re looking for Pittsburgh news, late night reading or a lecture hall distraction, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to satisfy your reading — and writing — needs with Pittsburgh’s many free publications.