Fix your print mag’s “ChatGPT vibes”
With a headline like that, I suppose I should get something out of the way first: I like ChatGPT!
I’ve written about the ways I use AI, and I’m always experimenting with new tools. (Current obsession: Google’s NotebookLM.)
I love the way that ChatGPT can smooth out some of my roughest sentences and clunky clauses. But I’ve also spent enough time with AI to notice that it can sand out my personality, too.
Sure, I always appreciate it when AI fixes my most egregious grammatical mistakes. But stack up enough of those bland, AI-generated sentences, and they stop sounding like a real human is behind them.
Unfortunately, I sometimes see a similar tendency in print alumni magazines: editors and institutions shy away from voice, humor, and humanity in favor of dull but unobjectionable prose.
You don’t want your alumni magazine to be full of boring, personality-free stories! Your college is a real place, your alumni are real people, and your magazine is a tangible object that connects the two.
Make that connection feel as human and real as your readers and the people that fill your campus buildings.
So how do you do that? Here are three ideas:
1. Give your headlines some flair
I’m the planet’s biggest champion of good headlines. I even created a whole course on it!
Headlines for print magazines are the one of the very best vehicles for communicating your personality and your institution’s personality, because they NEVER have to be SEO optimized. You can be clever and creative.
Take a recent story in Smith about a professor who painted a portrait of former New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.
The SEO optimized version might be: Smith Faculty Member Commissioned to Paint Portrait of Former New York Times Publisher.
Ugh, but fine.
When I asked ChatGPT to come up with something clever, it put its big brain into high gear and came up with “Smith Artist Puts Brush to Legacy: Capturing a Times Icon in Portrait.”
Double ugh.
The actual headline, “All the News That’s Fit To…Paint” is a play on the Times’ famous motto, “All the News That’s Fit To Print.” Very nerdy! Very clever!
Very Smith.
This is a headline created by a human, designed for real humans to read.
Your headlines are a welcome mat for your stories. Spend some time making them inviting.
2. Include more tiny, human stories
Almost every month, I hear from an editor who’s thinking about ditching their magazine’s class notes.
GUYS DON’T DO THIS.
I am not going to do a deep dive into the research here, except to say that class notes are the one thing your alumni will reliably and intentionally turn to in your magazine, so please do not cut the section your readers genuinely like.
Instead, make your class notes “hangoutable.” One way to do this is to go beyond those boring press release–style updates on promotions, publications, and awards. Make sure you include some fun, human connections, too.
Here’s one example from UConn Magazine:
It is true that this is not really news. It is not really an update in the traditional sense of the word. And yet: it’s a fun photo and a lovely connection.
Beautiful.
3. Give even your shortest obits personality
I know your in memoriam section ties you up in fits.
This section is an enormous amount of work, and it’s tough to figure out who gets just a date of death and who gets a full-page treatment.
I was blown away by the brilliant work that the team at Gonzaga has done for its obits, which are short and joyfully human.
Here are some sample obits:
- [Name], a sales and marketing professional and business instructor who loved hip-hop. Pleasanton, Calif.
- [Name], worked at Google then completed an MBA; known for her wit, charm, and fashion, Saratoga, Calif.
Oh my gosh, there are worlds within a single line or two. Fantastic.
Every single one of these ideas is just a line or two of text — but it can go miles in making your magazine feel personal and authentic.
