While I tend to focus my posts on US higher ed institutions, I know that more and more readers actually work at Canadian universities and colleges. That’s why I’ve decided to interview for this series about higher ed media Peggy Berkowitz, the editor of University Affairs published in print and online by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.
1) How do you use the Web in your work? Do you prefer RSS feeds or email?
I use the web for so many aspects of my job that’s impossible to name everything but these include: finding university faculty members and administrators; tracking down university press releases and verifying news reports; looking for story ideas from institutions or other media; downloading reports and presentations; looking for university photos; reading previous work of freelancers who want to write for University Affairs; following useful blogs and alerts in higher education and in magazine and online publishing (we have both a print magazine and a website). I subscribe to a few RSS feeds but at the moment I still prefer email.
2) What are the most helpful features on institutions’ websites?
A media room or tab for the PR/communications department that’s accessible from the institution’s home page and that lists staff members with their email address and direct phone extension. A searchable directory for faculty members and staff is indispensable. When a website is organized by user groups (For Faculty or For Students), it may be difficult to find basic information about academic departments. I like an “About the institution” button to read its self-description and a little history about the institution for people who don’t know it well.
3) What’s missing on these websites? What would you like to see added on these websites to help you do your job?
I like university sites that offer easy-to-find and easy-to-use, high-quality photos with enough information to write a cutline and which can be reprinted at no charge. Very few university sites offer this, but communications directors would be surprised at how much exposure they can get just by making it easy for editors to download photos to go with stories. Often print editors need a generic photo of students or research labs and they’ll go back to the sites that makes this stuff easy to find.
