Chances are you’ve already read this article published today in the New York Times: College Alumni Magazines Struggle to Compete With Facebook.
The article written by Cate Doty doesn’t provide any breaking news as higher ed blogger D.W. noted in her post published earlier today: News of the Obvious: Younger Alumni Turn to Facebook Versus Class Notes.
But, the piece is definitely an interesting overview worth sharing with your VP or president – especially if you want to build your case to add a digital interactive version for your print magazine (and, if you plan to do so, you might want to check out the upcoming 3-webinar series I designed for Higher Ed Experts and scheduled on June 24, 25 and 26, 2008, “Stop the Presses: How and Why to go Digital with your Magazine or Newsletter.”
Here’s an excerpt of this NYT article I found interesting – although the author might have gone a bit overboard at the end:
The advent of social networking on the Internet has created a quandary for these magazines, which want to maintain a conversation with alumni but have been slow to embrace the Web. Most schools have set up password-protected sites where graduates can change their contact information, drop a class note or donate money.
But younger alumni, accustomed to second-by-second updates from friends and classmates, are exchanging information in real time on Facebook and MySpace. Why wait for your alma mater to churn out a quarterly journal when you can Twitter all day?
I’m not sure young alums (or students) are the big twitterers we would all like them to be, but they are definitely used to getting more timely updates than any print publications will ever offer them.
That’s why more and more institutions are currently rethinking the way they communicate with alums and other institutional younger audiences.
My upcoming UB column to be published in the June issue of University Business (not yet available online – hey, it’s just June 2nd ;-) is dealing with this issue with a focus on magazines gone digital and going paperless.
But, what do YOU think? Is there a future for print magazines in higher ed?