The Orbital is the official student publication of the Students’ Union of Royal Holloway, University of London.

We observe an autonomous operation and advocate freedom of speech, with the final output being constitutionally supervised by the Students’ Union, through the sabbatical officer of the Vice President (Communications & Services) acting as Executive Editor. The Editor and Deputy Editor are elected in a cross-campus election every year.

Originally launched as a newspaper called The Egham Sun in 1986, Royal Holloway’s official Students’ Union publication was converted into a magazine format in the early 1990s and renamed The Orbital after the nickname of the nearby M25 motorway.

Published as an A4 glossy magazine in the late 1990s, it transformed into a smaller glossy monthly publication in 2005 with a new logo and style. During the 2006 National Student Journalism Awards, judges from the media industry praised the new format, describing it as “gritty, witty, relevant and coherent, packaged with good design and strong front covers,.”

In the same awards, The Orbital enjoyed nominations for Best Student Critic (Laura Beattie) and Best Student Photographer (Patrick Camara Ropeta) and went on to win Best Magazine.

Editor Patrick Camara Ropeta was thrilled by the success: “The Orbital came out of nowhere to win the top prize for student magazines. We are relatively small and unknown compared to most nominees, and larger universities often dominate the awards circuit. It’s such an honour to be chosen over such magazines; it’s a testament to the level of quality that The Orbital can achieve against all the odds.”

In 2007, the magazine evolved into a 40 page full colour quarterfold magazine under the new Editor, Mario Creatura. He also founded OrbitalLive! an event established to offer students the opportunity to walk in off of the street to contribute to their student publication.

The premise behind the event was for the OrbitalLive! team to create an entire issue of the publication using only contributions made in the first two days of Freshers’ Week. Mario Creatura described the ‘ethos of [the event as] helping to encourage journalistic talent and involvement in such an amazing institution.”

In 2008, Editor Jack Ratcliffe added glossy covers to focus on the publication’s main themes of lifestyle and culture. Emphasising the importance of proper production, Jack redesigned submission templates to modernise the submissions process, facilitating an easier workflow for copy and layout.

In early 2009 a new SU Publication Constitution and board structure were ratified, having been rewritten from scratch by Nick Stylianou, in order to allow for a streamlined operation in years to come. With Nick as editor The Orbital took the shape of a fortnightly Newspaper and Magazine (Junction 13).

From 2010 onwards, under the leadership of Anoosheh Dastbaz, there has been shift back to the original Magazine format and a movement towards creating an online presence. The recently relaunched website, integrates with the various other media outlets on campus, including Insanity Radio and Rhubarbtv, and the current board hope the web version will prove complementary to the print edition.