UC Magazine Achievements
for academic year 2008-09
Readership survey results positive
Readership surveys, conducted after each issue of the print magazine, reflected the following positive results:
• 96% of readers said the magazine makes them feel more in touch with the university.
• 96% said the print magazine was their preferred way to maintain that connection.
• 95% said they read the magazine within the first four weeks of its arrival.
• 90% said the magazine makes them proud to be connected to UC.
• 98.5% said they read the news section.
• 40% said the magazine encourages them to donate.
• 53% keep the magazine at least several months or pass it along to someone else
Awards won
The magazine won eight awards during the last academic year:
• CASE District V Silver Award for feature writing — "Killer Data: Researchers Save Lives" by John Bach
•Greater Cincinnati Society of Professional Journalists Awards for ‘07 (awarded in fall ‘08):
- Second place, education news, “Calling it a day…long after sunset” by Deb Rieselman
- Second place, feature photo, “Power of Place” by Bob Flischel
- Third place, sports feature, “We Have Arrived” by John Bach
- Honorable mention, arts & entertainment, “Welcome to Life at Paramount Studios” by Deb Rieselman
- Honorable mention, feature headline, “A Career at Play” by John Bach
• International Association of Business Communicators Bronze Quill Award of Excellence for an entire magazine, based upon one year's worth of print magazines.
• ’09 PIANKO Silver Print Excellence Award from the Printing Industries Association of Northern Kentucky and Ohio, to UC Magazine and Watkins Printing Co.
Web presence
• Added a Twitter page.
• Created a Web form application to more quickly publish readers submissions.
• Built a friend-finder application so readers can browse hundreds of alumni names that have appeared in the magazine.
• Circulation of e-magazine increased 10% to 95,000.
• E-magazine ranks just 3 percentage points below the main UC homepage as being the most important electronic communication readers have with UC.
Print magazine circulation increases
Circulation rose by an average of 5,000 magazines per issue for several reasons.
Campaign integration
A special campaign issue of the magazine was published in January ’09 and was enormously popular with both readers and the Foundation. We also merged the Foundation and Alumni Association sections in the magazine to more prominently reflect the campaign.
Diversity of content
We maintained diversity of coverage in the print magazine, as indicated by the following:
• All 14 colleges were covered in two issues, and only one college was omitted from the third issue (an increase of 17 percent coverage over last year).
• An average of 125 alumni were mentioned in each issue (an increase of 6 percent over last year).
• Minorities were included in 44% of all photos, including two covers and two back covers.
• Diversity of nationalities, genders, ages, religion, cultures, socio-economic classes, abilities and sexual orientation were well represented and documented.
See entire diversity report.
Controlling expenses
The magazine's per-unit printing/postage price of 71 cents was lower than any other university magazine recorded in a spring ’09 CASE survey.
Integrate magazine into overall communication strategies
Content is planned in consultation with the News Bureau staffs of both campuses, the Foundation and the President’s Office. Two Academic Health Center writers write for each issue of the print magazine. Online, we link dozens of UC offices and all colleges.
Journalism internship program
We employed a journalism intern, Sarah Fasce, this year and published her work online and in print.
An advisory board was established.
Editorial guidelines were published.