College and University General Interest Magazines

General Observations

Grand Gold Medal – The Newsweek Robert Sibley Magazine of the Year

Penn State Alumni Association, The Penn Stater

• Penn State Alumni Association’s magazine won this year’s Sibley Award because it grabs its readers by the shoulders and shouts, “Read this!” The Penn Stater’s hard-working staff uses every trick in the editor’s bag to make people stop, look, and then look some more. The covers are bold and clever (particularly one about classrooms that use CSI techniques). The headlines and blurbs are carefully crafted to lure readers into the stories. The ledes in both the features and departments are eye-catching. And even dull subjects—such as the history of a landmark campus building—are given fun formats and plenty of bright details.

The rest of the Sibley contenders also had several strong points:

• The staff of Carleton College’s Voice chose story topics and approaches that reflected contemporary life on campus and would no doubt draw in young alumni. The judges also liked a recurring feature called “Place Settings” that offered a close look at a pack-rat professor’s office and the kitchen of a special-interest residence hall.
• The University of Toronto’s Idea&s—a special-interest magazine from the School of Arts & Sciences—reflected its seriousness of purpose with wide-ranging, in-depth articles on free speech and global warming.
• Wesleyan’s oversized square format lent itself to some layouts for topics ranging from the rainforest to an alumnus who documents hip-hop culture.
• Notre Dame Magazine also exhibited big ambitions with special sections on global problems and profiles of people who striving to change the world. The editors often chose highly personal essays, photos, and illustrations to give the coverage extra variety and depth.

All this said: Too often, good stories were saddled with lackluster design and sleepy headlines. Other times, splashy design invited readers in, only to disappoint them with dull ledes and meandering writing. Even The Penn Stater’s design was noted for being somewhat dated and at times text-heavy. The judges agreed that editors shouldn’t have to choose between powerful writing that is poorly presented and undistinguished writing that is artfully illustrated and laid out.

Next year’s aspiring winners should consider this advice:

• Give important stories the headlines and layouts they deserve. Otherwise, readers will flip on by.
• Devote the needed time to create interesting cover lines. For today’s busy reader, a photo alone, or an illustration with small, vague cover lines, will seldom prompt anyone to take a closer look.
• Make sure your design is up to date and offers the needed amount of white space to set off the copy and guide the reader through the story.
• Finally, always do everything you can to inject life into everything you publish. Whether your articles are serious, silly, or a mix of both, they need your best efforts to signal to readers just how compelling they are.

Circulations of 30,000 to 75,000

44 entries

There were 16 semi-finalists for magazines in this category. The judges included alumni magazine editors, a retired newspaper reporter, a local magazine editor and a university media relations officer. Overall the judges felt that design was impressive but the writing was not. Magazines are getting prettier, but some seem to be losing substance. There were few articles that stood out. "Maybe it's time to invest more in writing," one judge said.

The editorial mix in several entries was puzzling. Some were too institutionally focused on traditional stories: reunions, new students, etc. One magazine covered home, food, and dating-as if nothing of substance was happening on its campus or among its alumni. The best magazines challenged their readers. "I want to read a magazine that I learn something from, that can appeal to me as an outside reader," said one judge.

On the design side, judges saw cover illustrations and photos that were extremely creative. The best magazines used one strong image on the cover-and that doesn't have to be the bell tower, Old Main, or the Quad. The front sections of the best magazines are becoming livelier by presenting easily digestible, quick bits. But some magazines went overboard in trying to attract the eye. We saw the overuse of too many fonts without any consistency. "This is not modern design. The art directors look like they threw up on the pages," said one judge.

There were also some examples of sloppy editing. One magazine had the page numbers wrong in its table of contents. Another jumped feature articles to the back of the magazine. There were obvious mathematical errors in the abstracts in calculating the cost per unit. Editors need to take the time to find the best examples of their work and to double-check all the information in their abstracts.

The following are judges' comments about the five award-winners:

Gold Medal

Wesleyan University, Wesleyan

• Best of both worlds, good balance between content and design. Great photos, excellent feature writing. One issue had great breadth-articles on Guantanamo Bay, hip hop, and the history of the Crown Heights clash between African Americans and Jews in New York. There was something there to catch any reader's eye.

Silver Medals

Columbia College Chicago, Demo

• We expect a lot from an art school and they delivered. The magazine matched the goals of the abstract-we found there were not many older alumni who could have been distracted by the cutting-edge artwork. Multiple fonts worked here because they knew how to use them.

Denison University, Denison Magazine

• Another case of good writing as well as good design. One judge said the Katrina piece was riveting, "even though I have already read too many Katrina articles." Each edition is a theme issue, but there were times when we couldn't necessarily figure out how the theme and the stories related to each other.

Bronze Medals

Middlebury College, Middlebury Magazine

• This magazine has a strong sense of place and knows who its audience is. We liked the organization and look of the front sections. There was a good mix of campus content and larger issues.

Wellesley College, Wellesley Magazine

• Professional and well done. The feature articles had strong ledes. Because of time constraints, we wanted to stop reading—but couldn’t put some stories down. One quibble: there is a tendency to devote too much coverage to one subject, such as the student union.

Circulations of 75,000 and Greater

The judges were looking for exemplary content, complemented by compelling design, in service to a clear and worthwhile mission¬ - in that order. In general, they were more impressed by the quality of the written content they found in these publications - which was consistently good and, in a few cases, stellar - than in the quality or consistency of their art direction and design, too much of which they found uneven or uninspired. Some extremely strong publications were marred by nagging design flaws, such as bland covers, the awkward placement of ads, or the excessive use of some design element, such as shadows behind headlines or hard-to-read type treatments. As for missions, many of the abstracts seemed a bit perfunctory - the judges were drawn to those that showed a clear understanding of their audience and their objectives, expressed these thoughtfully, and addressed them in meaningful ways. On the whole, everyone agreed that the general quality of the entries was high and the choice a difficult one.

The winners were all publications that could be appreciated even by readers who didn't know anything about the institution itself, but that offered particular value for those who did. Their covers were arresting, their writing excellent, their visuals powerful, their design consistent, and their voice distinctive and clear.

Gold Medals

Notre Dame University, Notre Dame Magazine

• Consensus choice for its thought-provoking and occasionally moving articles, its quietly stunning covers and artwork, the confidence and moral authority of its voice, and the distinctive and simple grace of its design. They found it particularly appropriate and well-conceived for its specific audience, and yet compelling for any literate person who might pick it up and begin to read.

Penn State Alumni Association, The Penn Stater

• The judges loved The Penn Stater for its eclectic, engaging and well-balanced mix of the thoughtful and the comic, the in-depth and the snappy, the timely and the nostalgic, the eloquently written and the beautifully displayed. They liked the fact that its covers were all quite different, yet equally striking, and they admired the sure-handed use of both photos and illustrations to keep the visuals interesting.

Silver Medal

New York University, NYU Magazine

• Praised for its eye-popping design and its appropriately edgy, New York style. The judges were impressed by its youthful, high-energy presentation and the confident use it makes of some of the institution's strengths--such as star-power, intriguing research and the city itself. Such in-your-face design might not be suitable for most publications, but for this one it seemed just right.

Bronze Medals

University of Pennsylvania, The Pennsylvania Gazette
University of Chicago, University of Chicago Magazine

• Both the The Pennsylvania Gazette and the University of Chicago Magazine won the judges over with their compelling writing, their intellectual heft, and their strong, if somewhat reserved, design. Both were also praised for exemplary departmentals that had far more depth than the usual.