Congratulations to the 2025 Robert Sibley Magazine of the Year winner!
Texas Law Magazine
For 142 years, The University of Texas School of Law has produced many of the nation’s legal legends and business, community, and political leaders. It also has one of the largest law alumni communities among schools at 27,000. The law school, however, had difficulty connecting with its large alumni base. From 2014 to 2024 the school was without a print magazine, relying on occasional “all-alumni” emails and a dozen or so events each year. Although we began a monthly digital newsletter during the pandemic, opening rates indicated that less than 5% of alumni saw our content. We needed a vehicle literally to get content into the hands of our alumni. Print publications have a proven track record in higher education so we decided to invest in a good one. If we could convince even half of our 27,000 alumni to invest 10 to 15 minutes with our magazine, that was infinitely more engagement than our email-only approach had been able to eke out. To succeed, the new magazine needed intelligent design and compelling content to stand out from other alumni magazines that our graduates might receive from their undergraduate institutions. Working with DJ Stout and Davian-Lynn Hopkins at Pentagram Austin, the Texas Law team created a new magazine that would reflect the school's traditional strengths, but feel contemporary, fresh, and worthy of our reputation. The completely reimagined publication, Texas Law Magazine, launched in April 2024. With experienced art direction and inventive, smart layouts, the twice-yearly magazine has been very well-received by alumni.
2025 Robert Sibley Magazine of the Year Finalists
College of the Holy Cross, Holy Cross Magazine
Johns Hopkins University, Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health Magazine
Sidwell Friends School, Sidwell Friends School Fall/Winter and Spring Magazine 2024
The Williston Northampton School, Williston Northampton School Bulletin
The Lawrenceville School, The Lawrentian
University of Iowa, Tippie Magazine
Western University, Western Alumni Magazine
Magazines eligible for the award have been published at least twice a year, and received a Gold or Grand Gold award in one of these Circle of Excellence categories:
- Alumni/General Interest Magazines (Four-Year Colleges and Universities, Printed Twice a Year)
- Alumni/General Interest Magazines (Four-Year Colleges and Universities, Printed Three+ Times a Year)
- Alumni/General Interest Magazines (Independent and International Schools)
- Alumni/General Interest Magazines (Targeted Audience)
- Alumni/General Interest Magazines (Two-year Institutions)
The Man and the Award
The beginnings of the Robert Sibley Magazine of the Year award trace back to 1918 and the founding of Alumni Magazines Associated—a group of editors from 40 colleges and universities who came together to cooperatively solicit advertisers to fund their then fledgling publications. In 1927, this group became part of the American Alumni Council—a predecessor to CASE—and its purpose expanded to sharing best practices and rewarding innovative ideas among alumni magazines.
The first awards focusing on editorial excellence and achievement by alumni magazines were awarded by the American Alumni Council in 1929. More than 100 magazines competed for awards recognizing best editorial and best story on the achievement of an alumnus, among other topics. California Monthly—the predecessor publication to California, the alumni publication of the University of California, Berkley—took home top honors for articles about alumni. Robert Sibley was the editor of the winning publication.
After many years and awards for his work at California Monthly, Sibley went on to serve as editor of the American Alumni Council's journal. In 1943, Sibley initiated the magazine of the year award, which now bears his name, and remains the highest award for excellence in the field.
Source-Alma Mater: Journal of the American Alumni Council, Number 27, May 1968
