Founded in 1877, it is the second-oldest continuously operating college news daily in the nation after The Harvard Crimson, and has been legally independent from the university since 1962.

In addition to serving as a campus newspaper, the Spectator also reports the latest news of the surrounding Morningside Heights community.

[2]: 179–180 In April 2014, Spectator announced it would become the first Ivy League newspaper to cut its daily print for a weekly distribution to focus on digital content and increase revenue.

The other non-writing departments, also headed by their own respective editors, include photography, illustrations, graphics, audio, video, and copy.

The Business & Innovations departments, which oversee the newspaper's advertising, finances, software development, and alumni relations, are headed by the publisher.

It was the third Ivy League paper to do this, after The Harvard Crimson's Sports Blog (December 2005) and The Daily Pennsylvanian's TheBuzz (January 2006).

[7] In September 2006, Spectator staff launched The Eye, a weekly magazine featuring investigative pieces and commentary on Columbia and New York City.

In March 2010, Spec launched a new blog, Spectrum, which is updated several times a day with breaking news, columns, and features.

[9] The lack of a constitution brought renewed protests in 2018 when concerns over potential prior misconduct of a staffer surfaced during the Turkeyshoots process.

[10] In 2018 and 2019, work by journalists at the paper played an important role in uncovering the plagiarism scandal around Charles K. Armstrong, a professor of history at Columbia University.