The Pandemic Print Crunch—and Preparing for the Digital Future

Once upon a time, the alumni magazine was the thing to communicate with our constituents.

But think about at all the ways we can tell stories these days: a photo on Instagram, a news piece in our weekly newsletter, an in-depth human interest story in our magazine’s feature well.  

Now that print magazine is just one tool in our communications toolbox. 

Listen, we’ll always argue that print has real, tangible value—but also that it cannot work alone. This recent Inside Higher Ed article examines how COVID has forced a long overdue reckoning with storytelling in alumni magazines: thinking beyond print—and with a quickness. Dog Ear Managing Partner Maureen Harmon was interviewed for the piece, and she weighs in on the rapid shift to a digital-first strategy and the value of podcasts for our audiences. 

“COVID really forced us to look outside the print world,” Mo told Inside Higher Ed. “When all the budgets got slashed, it helped us to break down those silos: What’s print magazine content, what’s digital content, what’s podcast material?”

The whole piece is worth reading, featuring thoughts by Matt Jennings at Middlebury, Erin Peterson of Capstone Communications, and Dale Keiger, former editor of Johns Hopkins Magazine, among others.