Education: The Candid Chronicle

"If I can't understand it, no one else will be able to," says Corbin Gwaltney, 52, editor of the weekly Chronicle of Higher Education. Gwaltney's insistence that his paper avoid insiders' jargon, combined with his lively news sense, has helped to make the seven-year-old Chronicle indispensable to an increasing number of college presidents, trustees, teachers and students. "We stand away from higher education to report on it, just as higher education stands away from the world," explains Gwaltney.

Briskly written and with a feel for the issue of the moment, the Chronicle —despite its somewhat stuffy title —prides itself on printing all...