The paper is published weekly on Thursdays during the fall and spring semesters of Emerson's academic year.

[1] The first issue of The Berkeley Beacon was published on February 1, 1947, under the direction of editor-in-chief Paul Mundt.

However the name might actually refer to the famous weather beacon atop the Berkeley Building, which was completed the same year.

In 1997, the Beacon broke a story about a female student's on-campus sexual assault, which the administration had failed to address.

[2] In April 2024, the Beacon covered the arrest of 118 student protesters during the nationwide demonstrations against the Israeli war in Gaza.