University Business - June 2009 - (Page 51)

IN ER R T T T T E C O N I N TT E N EN E E C H N O L HG Y O L O G Y A ﬁve-step plan for assessing and negotiating the transition from print to web publications By Karine Joly 2010: Print to Web Odyssey? J ULY 1 WILL MARK THE START of the new budget year in most institutions across the country. Nothing new, as that’s the regular budget cycle of higher education. But new this year are the deep cuts some budgets have undergone due to the economic situation. For many publication oﬃcers and magazine editors working for colleges and universities, this budget year is going to bring drastic changes and big challenges. With increasing paper, printing, and postage costs combined with big circulations, print publications have become the biggest budget lines on most balance sheets—the type of lines that will get noticed by any ﬁnancially concerned eye. At the same time, as individuals and as professionals we are becoming ever more deeply immersed in new technologies and digital media. With so much time spent in front of screens, it’s easy to wonder if printing anything on paper still makes sense, especially when sustainability eﬀorts are targeting any wasteful use of natural resources. Are college publications going to follow the tragic lead of the newspaper industry? It’s probably too early to tell, but current budget levels are deﬁnitely worrying, as proven by some of the results of an online survey of 148 editors conducted in March 2009 on the CASECUE listserv, an online community mainly composed of higher ed magazine editors that’s managed by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Some highlights: • Only about one-third of survey respondents haven’t been advised to review or reduce costs related to their Consult the recipients of your publications about their preferences in terms of formats. ﬂagship publication, while the same percentage has been expressly asked to produce their magazine at a lower cost. • Nearly 18 percent have been instructed to review the lineup of all their marketing publications, including their magazine. • Last spring, more than half (54.5 percent) of the surveyed editors expected a decrease in budget and staﬃng levels for 2010. While this survey wasn’t scientiﬁc in nature, it conﬁrmed the trends uncovered by another recent survey, which I conducted from January 29 to February 17, 2009, about the state of print and electronic publications in higher education. is was an updated version of a previous survey I reported about in the University Business column “Demand Print or Print on Demand?” (October 2007). Completed by 199 institutions on a voluntary basis, this year’s survey isn’t statistically representative, but it deﬁnitely sheds some light on the current move from print to electronic on many campuses. Full survey results from “ e State of Print and Electronic Publications in Higher Ed, 2009” can be found here: www.higheredexperts.com/2009surveys. According to the results, no less than 65 percent of respondents reported that their print budget had been frozen or had decreased over the past two years—as opposed to only 48 percent in the 2007 survey. To reduce the budget of print publications, 82 percent have started to rely more on electronic publications, a ﬁve-point increase compared to 2007. More and more news-oriented publications such as newsletters, those covering campus news, and event calendars are now only available in an electronic format (see chart, next page). While this fate is reserved to a small fraction of magazines—4 percent—this share has doubled in less than two years. So what should you do if you have been asked to come up with a plan to revisit your institution’s marketing and news publication budget? 1. DON’T PANIC: Get the facts straight about existing publications. Even if your institution produces only a handful of publications, start with Karine Joly is the web editor behind www .collegewebeditor.com, a blog about higher ed web marketing, public relations, and technologies. She is also the founder of the professional development online community www .higheredexperts.com. June 2009 | 51 universitybusiness.com http://www.higheredexperts.com/2009surveys http://www.collegewebeditor.com http://www.collegewebeditor.com http://www.higheredexperts.com http://www.higheredexperts.com http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - June 2009

University Business - June 2009
Editor's Note
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Behind the News
Viewpoint
Financial Aid
Keeping It Green
Joining Forces
From A to V
Independent Outlook
Internet Tech
End Note

University Business - June 2009