Over the past few years, I’ve learned it’s a fool’s errand to make predictions for the coming year. At the end of 2019, for example, I shared everything I felt certain the following months would hold for print alumni magazines. But 2020 had a few other ideas. Then 2021 and 2022 added their own unique twists, […]
A couple months ago, I was in the market for a new bike. After walking aimlessly around the local bicycle shop for a while, I nabbed a sales associate, described what I was looking for, and asked if he could help me narrow my choices. He pulled a few bikes for me, highlighting features that […]
For years, I’ve subscribed to the Harvard Business Review. I’ve always loved its gorgeous covers and illustrations, its silky, high-end paper, and the way it made me seem extremely smart when I pulled it out of my bag to read on airplanes. 🤓 So a few years ago, when I got a notice that starting immediately, I’d […]
Today I’m going to sum up 25 years of of my best alumni magazine advice in one post. If you’ve been following me for a while, you probably are familiar with a lot of these ideas. And if not, I hope this will be a quick introduction to the best insights I’ve gleaned from reading […]
Every year, I’m thrilled to be able to talk to the editor of CASE’s Robert Sibley Magazine of the Year, and this year is no exception. Milton Academy’s Milton magazine, edited by Sarah Abrams, is 2022’s winner. It’s a beauty! Every winning publication is a little different, and one particularly notable detail about Milton magazine is that it’s the first […]
There’s no question that alumni magazines are facing a lot of headwinds these days. I won’t enumerate all of the paper and staffing challenges many teams are seeing right now, since you likely know them viscerally. Often, these challenges lead to publications with fewer pages that are published less frequently. These trends make what I […]
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 […]