The newspaper has five main editorial sections: News, Opinion, Science, Sports and The Guide, a weekly arts and lifestyle magazine.

Blushing as coyly as any schoolgirl, and with the excited fears and hopes of a debutante … we lay this first edition of The Hoya at the feet of the student body, and retreat to a safe distance to observe the effects.

[1]The first issue of The Hoya was published on January 14, 1920, under the editorship of Joseph R. Mickler, Jr. Student journalism at Georgetown can be traced as far back as 1824 and the appearance of a hand-copied publication titled Minerva.

In its early years, The Hoya published once a week, focused mainly on internal, campus affairs, promoting student organizations and school functions, and devoted a large part of its coverage to sports.

In 1930, The Hoya received the highest rating given to a college weekly publication by the National Collegiate Press Association.

Women's athletics received more detailed coverage, as did the impact of Title IX, and by the end of the decade, references to "girls" and "hoyettes" had been eliminated from the sports pages.

Issues in the spring of 1973 contained coverage of attempts by gay students to organize and obtain official recognition.

In the post-Watergate era, perhaps influenced by the event, The Hoya began to run investigative journalism pieces.

The first issue in 1980, published on January 25, was the first to appear without the approval of a faculty moderator who had previously been a member of the editorial board.

In the 1990s, The Hoya consolidated and expanded its entertainment coverage into a pullout arts and lifestyle section titled The Guide.

In 2023, The Hoya launched a Science section to expand its coverage to science-related on-campus and off-campus topics.

The newspaper relaunched the campaign in early 2008 and circulated a petition that gained over 600 signatures from students and alumni.

The Hoya's Board of Directors voted in 2010 to delay independence until the national economy and the paper's financial situation becomes more favorable.

This included a piece on the current student body president candidate who had undisclosed ties to the secret society.

[5][6] At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, The Hoya temporarily paused their print issues and shifted to weekly newsletter-based distribution.