The Tab is a tabloid-style youth news site, published by Tab Media Ltd. It was launched at the University of Cambridge and has since expanded to over 80 universities in the United Kingdom and United States. The name originates from both an abbreviation for tabloid and a nickname applied to Cambridge students (from 'Cantabs').
The Tabs network consists of a national site and an individual sub-site for each university. Local campus-based stories are produced by students, with a student editorial team for each sub-site. Professional editors in The Tabs offices in Shoreditch and Williamsburg offer guidance and editorial insight to their student teams, as well as writing for the site on a regular basis.
In September 2017 News Corp was the main investor with a total of $6m (£4.6m) of new funding raised by Tab Media. In return for its investment News Corp has taken a minority stake in it and Emma Tucker, deputy editor of The Times, will sit on its board of directors.
History
2009–2012
The Tab was launched in 2009 by Cambridge students Jack Rivlin, George Marangos-Gilks and Taymoor Atighetchi. The website was marketed as "Cambridge University's Online Tabloid" promising to "provide fast news and entertainment direct to your rooms". The Tab was initially funded entirely by its three founders, although it now funds itself through advertising and other investment.
At its inception, "Tab Totty", a Page 3-esque feature, featured photographs of scantily clad Cambridge University (male and female) students in provocative poses. The feature was widely criticised, and Cambridge University's Women's Officer stated, "We can do better as a university". The subsequent controversy was picked up by several mainstream British newspapers, and made international headlines.
In 2009, the site's readers voted British National Party leader Nick Griffin "The worst person ever to attend Cambridge University" with 44% of the vote. In early 2010, The Tab ran an April Fools' Day hoax claiming Griffin had been stripped of his degree. This was subsequently reported by The Sun who believed the claims to be genuine.
In November 2010, The Tab released documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act detailing recent disciplinary procedures enacted across the university. Details from the documents released were then reported by national newspapers, including The Daily Telegraph.
In June 2011, The Tab published a pilot print edition of 5,000 copies in May Week and another Freshers' Week edition in October 2011. This tradition continued in the following years.
2012–2015
In Autumn 2012, The Tab expanded to twelve other British universities. Backed by external investment, Rivlin and Marangos-Gilks aim to build a mass circulation online paper for students across the country.
The news site has held journalism training events in association with The Daily Telegraph.
2015–present
The Tab opened its first American bureau in Brooklyn in July 2015. The Tab first scoop to make the national papers came four days before it launched its first sub-site – a video of a UVA hockey player chugging a beer on the ice which they broke on their Facebook page made The Washington Post, USA Today and several other titles.
The site launched at 23 colleges on the East Coast in the fall of 2015 – including Ivy League institutions, and major public universities such as Penn State, University of North Carolina, and Rutgers.
They broke several stories which made the American national press. Their coverage of a Dartmouth Black Lives Matter protest was featured on Fox News and quoted in The Washington Post.
In April 2016, The Tab broke the news of where President Obama's daughter Malia was attending college.
In August 2016, founder Jack Rivlin assumed the role of CEO and Joshi Herrmann, a former Tab Cambridge editor who had been working at the Evening Standard, was appointed as Editor in Chief. Grace Vielma became UK Editor.
They have since expanded their team at their London office to 33 people.
In September 2017 News Corp was the main investor of a total of $6m (£4.6m) of new funding raised by Tab Media. In return for its investment News Corp has taken a minority stake in it and Emma Tucker, deputy editor of The Times, will sit on its board of directors.
In October 2020, Digitalbox plc acquired Tab Media and The Tab.
Babe
Babe, also known as Babe.net, was a spinoff aimed at young women. It was established in May 2016 by then Tab editor Roisin Lanigan and focuses on what Slate contributor Ruth Graham called "vulgar tomfoolery" – provocative, light stories unlikely to appeal to older women.