Over the course of my career, I’ve done thousands of interviews. I’ve talked to people who have never been interviewed for a story to folks who spend many of their days talking to the media. Over the years, I’ve gotten a handful of questions and requests again and again (and again) during these interviews. If […]
A few years ago, I published a newsletter about three common alumni magazine myths that you should ignore. But there aren’t just three. I continue to collect them and categorize them, because I’m interested in why we end up believing certain things about our publications that aren’t true. Sometimes, our beliefs are actively harmful to […]
Let’s talk about crowdsourced storytelling. The premise is simple: you throw a question or a prompt to your readers. You wait for some incredible responses to roll in, throw them all together, and voila, an instant, free story. Right? If you’ve ever done a crowdsourced story, you know the promise that I’ve described above is…not reality. […]
A few months ago, I was flipping through a stack of alumni magazines and I came across an arresting two-page photo spread in Holy Cross Magazine. The mystery photo had a caption that asked alumni to help identify the people in the image and share any additional relevant details. (Side note: Am I getting your magazine? If not, put me […]
Over the years, I’ve gotten many questions from editors about how to bring the stories from their print magazines to a wider audience. From social media posts to dedicated magazine websites to email blasts, there are lots of ways to think about bringing a print story to new eyes. Today I want to talk about […]
Each December, I share my predictions for print alumni magazines in the coming year. To say these past couple years have been more unpredictable than most is an understatement! Still, over the past 12 months, I’ve spent countless hours studying your magazines. I’ve talked to dozens of you about what you’re thinking about and worried […]
Over the past couple years, print magazines have gone through the wringer. Many schools have trimmed pages from their publications, decreased their frequency, or put them on hiatus. (You can see the report I published on this trend here.) But that wasn’t the case for Barry University, a private Catholic institution in Miami. Recently, they […]
Today, I’m excited to share some really cool anniversary issues — including some of the behind-the-scenes stories about their development and what makes them tick. I hope you can adapt some of these ideas for your own anniversary projects, whatever the size. 1. Find a flexible, meaningful concept to organize your storytelling. Last year, I […]
When I was a junior, I applied for an internship at my college’s alumni magazine. I was one of exactly two candidates — and I didn’t get the job. Four years later, I was on the Sibley-winning team for an alumni magazine. It was a pretty good trajectory. For years, I told myself my alma […]
Over the years, I’ve talked a lot about how to craft stories that are valuable for your institution. I’ve shared details on writing stories for your publication on strategic plans, on campaigns, and on new leadership. I’ve talked about some of the ways to make those big-deal profiles — even the ones that you’re dreading — compelling. These stories […]