Internal Audience Periodicals Tabloids and Newsletters

2010 Circle of Excellence Awards Program

Judges Report

Winners:

Gold Award
Emory University (Ga.), Emory Report

Silver Award
The City University of New York Main Campus (N.Y.), CUNY Matters

The judges were impressed that, in this era of e-newsletters, blogs and other online communications, several schools are still producing robust, informative and visually interesting print publications.

The standouts in this year's contest - those that found their way to the final round of judging - were CUNY Matters (City University of New York), the Emory Report (Emory University), Inside Stanford Medicine (Stanford University School of Medicine), the Penn Current (University of Pennsylvania), the Times of the University of South Carolina, and Working@Duke (Duke University). Each of these publications had a good mix of well-written stories that together painted a picture of a vibrant campus community in which to live, work and learn.

The winning entries - Gold medalist Emory Report and Silver medalist CUNY Matters - distinguished themselves by reporting openly about issues of university governance, albeit not to the extent the judges would have liked.

To be of utmost service to the university at large, internal tabloids must go beyond the mere reporting of "happy news," i.e., research grants won, books published, administrators appointed or promoted. Delve deeper: Why did the endowment drop? Why is the graduate school struggling to enroll master's candidates? Why are faculty requesting a change in tenure procedures? Can anything be done to offset rise health-care premiums? The judges encourage more university newspapers and newsletters to investigate the hard issues confronting their campuses as a way of stimulating discussion, generating ideas, and unifying the community around a common goal. Granted, it's a tough sell to senior administrators. But it's worth having the discussion.

Magazines

Winner:

Silver Award
York University (Ontario), YorkU

With just three entries in this category, it's difficult to make meaningful assessments or draw definitive conclusions. But suffice to say the winning entry, York University's YorkU, was judged to be the most accessible magazine of the bunch. Judges liked York's cover the best, its overall design the best, and its writing the best. Case closed.

Web-Based or Electronic HTML Internal Audience Periodicals

Winners:

Gold Award
Duke University (N.C.), The Week at Duke

Silver Award
University of North Texas Health Science Center, UNTHSC Connection

Seventeen entries were received in this subcategory. The judges found they ran the gamut, from very good to overwhelming to bland.

After an initial round of judging, five entries were moved to the second round: The Week at Duke (Duke University), Grécourt Gate (Smith College), Stanford Report (Stanford University), Between the Columns (University of Maryland) and UNTHSC Connection (University of North Texas Health Science Center). After a further round of judging, The Week at Duke (Gold) and UNTHSC Connections (Silver) were chosen as medalists.

The winning entries incorporated story categorization, quick summaries and strong visuals with clean, simple design, giving readers the ability to quickly scan and select the headlines or story topics that most interest them. These sites also encouraged reader participation (polls, submit your photo, etc.) and provided social media links to their readers. UNTHSC Connections does the latter particularly well. 

The sites that failed to advance did not present their information in a clear, orderly or concise way. Many crammed so much information into one screen that judges were left wondering where to begin.