[5] In protest against French nuclear testing in the Pacific, in 1972 the editors refused to use the paper's original French-language title and substituted Heresay [sic].
[8] In its early years, On Dit focussed mainly on the activities and happenings of clubs and societies at the North Terrace campus of the University of Adelaide.
While the paper charged a low price to its readers in its first decades, it switched to free distribution in the 1960s and remains so to this day, supporting itself with advertising and funds from the AUU.
[10] That same year saw On Dit publish editorials on the use of torture in Vietnam, and on Australia's treatment of Aboriginals, in keeping with the activism of much of the student press at the time.
[16] This follows disqualifications of various ‘Progress’ candidates (a student political faction of which Adrian, Jennifer, Harish, and Raktim were members of) in the general elections for the YouX Board and SRC.
This was changed to a magazine (half-tabloid newsprint) format early in 2006 to help the paper cope with financial uncertainty brought about by Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU).
In more recent years the paper has better resembled other free street press, though with more artistic (or at any rate abstract) covers, usually eschewing headlines, and a focus more broadly on commentary, politics and pop culture than on the popular music common to the format.
Because of Voluntary Student Unionism, the editors now have to secure some of their funding from advertising space, and the paper has gone from a weekly broadsheet to a smaller fortnightly magazine.
Mr Justice Samuel J. Jacobs AO QC; Elliot Frank Johnston QC; author Garry Disher; former ALP state politician Peter Duncan (Australian politician); Rhodes Scholar, Diplomat & Ambassador Charles Robin Ashwin; former South Australian MLC and current Federal Senator Nick Xenophon;[21] former vice-captain of the Australia women's national football (soccer) team Moya Dodd; former Secretary of the South Australian Trade Unions, Chris White; poet Max Harris AO; long-time Advertiser journalist Samela Harris and David Penberthy, editor of The Punch website, and former Advertiser journalist and former editor of The Daily Telegraph in Sydney.
These have included Samantha Maiden, Colin G. Kerr, Mark Davis, Daniel Wills, Richard Ogier, David Mussared, Rosemary O'Grady, the Rev.
Editor Noel Lindblom went on to work at the other local daily paper The News while Clementine Ford became a columnist for the Sunday Mail and then later for Fairfax.
Australian Labor Party Senator Anne McEwen contributed to On Dit in the area of administration when she worked for the Students' Association of the University of Adelaide.
Other On Dit contributors and staff to go on and work in the media have included Keith Conlon from Radio Station 5AA and journalists Jane Willcox, Barry Hailstone, Farah Farouque, Mike Duffy, Jenny Turner and cartoonist Ross Bateup.
Former On Dit science editor Mark Douglas went on to work with The Advertiser, The Australian, The South China Morning Post and The Times, as well as Channel 7 Australia.