We report the bold stories USC needs.

We’ve exposed major flaws in the school’s cybersecurity systems. We’ve uncovered seismic cuts to scholarships and employee benefits. Once, we mailed the university president a “Moron of the Year” trophy.

You’ll find no news outlet that breaks bigger stories while having more fun doing it.

When we’re not reporting major scoops, we’re writing the daily newsletter — our bread and butter.

On weekday mornings, you’ll receive a two-minute email brief that aggregates the day’s biggest USC, Los Angeles, and California stories. We trawl dozens of news websites, then synthesize the five most important articles into bite-sized, snarky briefs. Click the link if you want to read more; scroll if you don’t.

Reading the news is hard. We do the legwork for you.

You won’t find us on social media, and we don’t have an app, either. We believe that newsletters are the best way to build consistent, uncluttered newsreading habits. That often means we don’t have the same reach as USC’s other student news outlets — but we’re fine with that.

Our subscribers include some of USC’s highest-performing students who run clubs, service organizations, student government, media, and participate in Division I athletics.

We count USC trustees, high-level executives, deans, senior faculty, healthcare officials, staffers, alumni, and parents among our readers.

Reporters, editors, and business executives at The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, LAist, The San Francisco Standard and San Diego Union-Tribune also read Morning, Trojan.

Morning, Trojan is a one-man reporting operation founded by Tomoki Chien. He’s a USC journalism student and full-time reporter at The San Francisco Standard, where he has covered homelessness, human trafficking, casino feuds, and “naked samaritans.”

He drives from Los Angeles to San Francisco and back every week.

A rotating cast of USC’s ace student journalists also occasionally contributes reporting to Morning, Trojan. The newsletter is copy edited by Anna Hsu, a USC computer science student who previously led a team of editors at Annenberg Media.

Morning, Trojan is USC’s only student news outlet that isn’t funded by the school.