University Business - April 2010 - (Page 6)

EDITOR’S NOTE Communication Is a Two-Way Street L ast month I had the pLeasure of participating in a “meet the media” panel at the 29th annual Cuprap (College and university public relations association of pennsylvania) spring Conference at the hotel hershey. It was great to finally get a chance to meet in person so many of the communication professionals that we’ve worked with in the past. my copresenters were toni Coleman, editor at Diverse: Issues In Higher Education, and scott Gilbert, news rmann (@micheleherrmann). We also track rss feeds from varidirector for WItf, the local npr station. ous schools and news sources. much of the discussion that morning focused on how we another point raised was that university communications could work more effectively with communication profession- people need to better recognize the lead time that a print pubals in covering their institutions. I’d like lication—and to a lesser extent, a radio to touch on some of the points that were program—needs to produce a story. toni The media relations page Coleman mentioned how she often gets raised that day, which may be helpful not just for pr staff but for other campus adcan be the hardest thing interesting story pitches that she can’t act ministrators to know, as well. on because they come too late in a proto find on a website. first, toni, scott, and I each noted that duction cycle. accessibility was the key to getting coverthe same thing happens to us at Uniage. our ability to contact the right people versity Business. It’s much too late, for exat colleges makes our jobs easier. But you may be surprised to ample, to pitch an idea for our June sustainability issue in late learn that one of the hardest things to find on a school’s website may. one thing you can do to help improve your chances is is the media relations page. We’ve become adept at using site di- to grab our 2010 editorial Calendar (a pdf download can be rectories and Google searches to find the media contacts we need, found at http://bit.ly/bepupv) and see how you might be able but it really shouldn’t be that way. to contribute to the editorial coverage we have planned. the earaccessibility works both ways, of course, and we all agreed lier the better. Just remember that the calendar is not carved in that, unless something is stop-the-presses important, a simple stone and is subject to change. e-mail is probably the best way to contact us. decisions often finally, colleges and universities often have faculty or admincan’t be made on the spot and may take discussion among the istrators who can speak authoritatively on a variety of topics— editorial staff. the in-house experts. I asked the audience how many of their another way to spread your news is through the various schools maintained a list of experts, and nearly every hand in social media channels such as facebook and twitter. In fact, a the room went up. all your print and broadcast media contacts number of people were actually “live-tweeting” the proceedings should have those lists. not only will that lead to better stories over the three days of the conference. on our part, but it will also increase the chance that your school I will repeat here what I told the Cuprap audience: If you gets the recognition it deserves in editorial coverage. If your insend a twitter message to @tgoral, I will gladly follow you. I stitution has an expert list, we’d like to get our hands on it. send scan my twitter feeds throughout the day (lists make it easy to the link to experts@universitybusiness.com. keep things under control), looking for news stories and tips University Business exists to help you. Let’s see how we can from colleges and universities around the country. work together to do that better. the entire University Business editorial staff does much the same thing. You can use twitter to stay in touch with managing editor melissa ezarik (@melissaezarik), associate editor ann Write to Tim Goral at tgoral@universitybusiness.com. mcClure (@annmcclure), and associate editor michele heruniversitybusiness.com 6 | April 2010 http://bit.ly/bEPuPv http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - April 2010

University Business - April 2010
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Behind the News
Sense of Place
Viewpoint
Financial Aid
Internet Technology
Certified for Safety
Managing the Enterprise on Limited Resources
A New Chapter for Campus Bookstores
Independent Outlook
What's New
End Note

University Business - April 2010