Internal Audience Periodicals

General Observations

The following are general descriptions of the judges' thoughts related to each category.
However, this graph immediately below reflects our overall thoughts about "Internal Audience" publications (printed or Web-based):

These types of publications should never be a stockpile where university news releases go to die. Nor should they offer only statements/stories from administrators. While some research will interest the masses, faculty and staff deserve a blend of stories that interest them: staff profiles, higher education trends, messages from campus leaders, health care benefit info, tips for working more efficiently and happily, new policy changes, parking issues, critical dates that mark the ebb and flow of students and faculty on campus, etc. The mission statements submitted on these CASE entries indicated this was their mission (community building, sharing pertinent staff/faculty and even student information), but yet few of the entries followed through.

These publications could be considered a community bulletin board of sorts - the type that offers insight into both the important and the fun conversations being had around each water cooler or coffee pot. The blend of stories should appeal to everyone, from the maintenance department to the English department to the administration building. As we do with our external audience publications, we should ask ourselves if each story - each sentence - included will be of interest to our intended readers. And if the answer is no, don't waste any more of yours - or the reader's - time with it.

Print Internal Audience Tabloids and Newsletters

Such a wide variety of styles and approaches. Entries really ran the gamut from unappealing and drab to exciting and well-designed. Many entries had great content, but did not appeal to the whole campus. Rather, they spoke to just faculty or researchers and did not address the concerns and needs of other university staff. With other entries, the content throughout seemed uninspired. We were disappointed in the institutional tone of many entries. They weren't community builders, but rather soap boxes for administrators or the campus news release shop. Consider the audience - make them feel inspired in their work and proud to be a part of the institution. Some institutional news is important, yes, but give readers some variety. Give them lively writing.

Gold Medal

University of Pennsylvania, Penn Current

Bronze Medals

Duke University (N.C.), Working@Duke
Johns Hopkins Medicine (Md.), Dome
Stanford University (Calif.), Stanford Report
Wilfrid Laurier University (Ontario), Inside Laurier

Print Internal Audience Magazines

We got a strong sense of value from the top winner (University of Bristol), and felt it did a good job of instilling pride in the university. It was definitely worth the cost and effort of production. York University also did a good job of evaluating what its readers wanted/needed and delivering just that.

Some of the consistent flaws among the entries include long, dry stories; dry headlines and subheads; weak writing that appeared forced, uninspired and institutional; dependence on the narrative writing style only (when often times non-narrative stories are more attractive to readers); in some cases, unorganized and poor design; some text placed on photos or graphics were too hard to read; and horrific fonts.

Some of the highlights: solid university-specific, higher education and workplace tips stories, interesting profiles, stunning organization and design, good photography and good organization.

Gold Medal

University of Bristol (United Kingdom), Subtext

Silver Medal

York University (Ontario), York U

Web-Based or Electronic HTML Internal Audience Periodicals

Many of the newsletters seem to overdo it so much with information, that it seems as if the e-newsletters as a whole would be disregarded after a few issues - especially the dailies. Tease readers with something pertinent and interesting, inviting them to explore further through another link.

One of the big issues for the judges was organization. Is each e-newsletter organized in a way that's easy to navigate? Or, is there so much crammed into one screen that readers hardly know where to go. Our winners (University of Washington, University of Maryland-College Park and Duke) all took care to offer hierarchy for the reader. Stories were pertinent, well-written, and easy to browse and descriptions weren't long. They were also beautifully designed.

Gold Medal

University of Washington, University Week

Silver Medal

University of Maryland, College Park, Between the Columns

Bronze Medal

Duke University (N.C.), Duke Today