The paper's editors and board members emphasized the change was part of a commitment to a digital-first strategy, not the product of financial pressures.

At the 2009 Associated Collegiate Press National College Media Convention in Austin, Texas, the paper won the Best in Show category for four-year daily tabloids.

[5] In 2007, The Chronicle took home four awards from the ACP, including Online Story of the Year for its ongoing coverage of the Duke lacrosse scandal.

[6] The paper also won Best in Show in the tabloid division in 2005 in Kansas City, Missouri and finished in second place in Editorials that year.

That same year, it was recorded as having 236,090 total social media shares, making it the 7th highest in the U.S.[8] Journalist and New York magazine founder Clay Felker was an editor of The Chronicle while a student at Duke in the 1950s.

[4] The paper has an annual award in honor of Matt Sclafani, the newspaper's editor for the 1990–91 school year, who was diagnosed with leukemia during his term and died in 1992.