The Magenta's editors declined Dean Burney's advice and moved forward with a biweekly paper, "a thin layer of editorial content surrounded by an even thinner wrapper of advertising".

This particular issue, May 21, 1875, also included several reports on athletic events, a concert review, and a call for local shopkeepers to stock the exact shade of crimson ribbon, to avoid "startling variations in the colors worn by Harvard men at the races".

"[5]The paper returned to its traditional civilian version in 1946, and it grew larger, more financially secure, more diversified, and began more extensive coverage of the world outside the campus during the early Cold War era.

Radcliffe women on staff were forced to follow curfews to which Harvard men were not subject, and that interfered greatly with the late hours required in producing a newspaper.

Crimson editors pushed for later curfews for their female writers, who grew increasingly involved in the newspaper's daily operations.

Future Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Anthony Lukas' stories, including an interview with HUAC witness Wendell H. Furry, were sometimes picked up by the Associated Press.

[citation needed] In 1991, student reporters for The Crimson, including Josh Gerstein, who decades would later break the news of the Supreme Court's plan to overturn Roe v. Wade, were the first to break the news that Harvard had selected former Neil Leon Rudenstine, then Princeton University's provost, to succeed Derek Bok as the university's president.

The reporters, who had learned of a secret meeting in New York City, got their confirmation when they approached a surprised Rudenstine on his plane ride back to Boston.

On April 23, 2006, The Crimson was the first to allege that portions of Harvard student Kaavya Viswanathan's highly publicized debut young adult novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life had been plagiarized from two bestselling books by novelist Megan McCafferty.

[8][9][10] In 2019, The Crimson came under fire from some Harvard student groups after an article on a campus protest calling for the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In July 2022, the paper announced that it was changing from daily to weekly issues that fall as part of a shift to digital-first journalism.

The paper's editorial board admitted that where it previously held a "skeptical" stance on the matter, it has now shifted to fully supporting the BDS campaign, insisting that, "The weight of this moment — of Israel's human rights and international law violations and of Palestine's cry for freedom — demands this step".

[15] In 2024, The Crimson scooped national outlets to the news that Claudine Gay would be resigning her post after a tumultuous semester in office.

At the beginning of 2004 The Crimson began publishing with a full-color front and back page, in conjunction with the launch of a major redesign.

The Crimson has a rivalry with the Harvard Lampoon, which it refers to in print as a "semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine.

The Crimson is composed of 10 boards: Arts, Business, News, Sports, Editorial, Blog, Design, Magazine, Multimedia, and Technology.