The Orange and White became the Daily Beacon on April 20, 1965, when the paper began publishing daily. At that time the paper also ceased reporting solely UT news and began regularly including coverage of national and international news, as well as local news of interest to UT. Professor Frank Thornburgh of the Journalism Department helped to supervise the switch from the less-frequently-published Orange and White to the daily publication and served as the first faculty advisor of the Daily Beacon. Upon his retirement in 1985, he related the fact that the Publications Board had first seriously considered naming the daily publication the Volunteer Daily, because of the name of the yearbook, but had realized that the nickname that would be attached to the publication would have been the VD. Students were then solicited for name suggestions, and the Daily Beacon (with ties to the alma mater), was chosen. According to Mr. Walter Pulliam, whose Harriman newspaper was printing the UT student newspaper at the time, the Volunteer Daily was set for the masthead, but two weeks before the paper was to make the transition to the new name, the name was changed.
Over the break between fall and winter quarters in 1980, manual typewriters were replaced by Micro-Tek, with electronic video display terminals connected to a core computer system.