We’ve been talking about a redesign for the magazine for a couple of years now, and I’ve been broaching the topic whenever I run into an interested reader. I’ve sometimes been taken aback by the typical response: “Why?”
But I’ve had some time to get used to the question, and certainly to appreciate the affection for the publication that it evinces. “Why would you do that?” It’s a useful question, actually. As we’ve been taking the magazine through a radical rethink this winter, it’s this question that has kept me focused on what a St. Norbert College magazine needs to be, as well as what it could be.
It seems to me, a St. Norbert magazine needs to feel like “us.” It needs to connect with readers’ pride and affection for the place. It needs to acknowledge our past and future, as well as our (very exciting) present. It needs to seize the imagination in a new, but still very SNC way.
All these “needs” speak to us (Bridget, Drew, me) right where we live, so it has not been hard to take them to heart. With the redesign – and our Spring 2013 issue – going public this week, we feel a little bit proud of our work and very hopeful that readers will embrace it too. That said, we have a keen interest in reactions both ways, and will take all on board.
Back to that question “why,” though. Two pat answers spring straight to mind and, although they clearly
Intern Rachel Gintner ’14 looks over printer proofs for the new issue.
won’t do, I’ll offer them here for starters: 1) “Why not?” 2) Eleven years is an awfully long time. (Yes! It was indeed 2002 when the “new” St. Norbert College Magazine debuted.)
I am heartily grateful to all the people who have not let us off this easily while I’ve been badgering them about this project. Their concern for the college and the mag uncovered these more telling prompts for the redesign that launches later this week:
- Eleven years is, indeed, an awfully long time. Eleven years ago, social media was not even a twinkle in Mark Zuckerberg’s eye and no-one was reading magazines on their cellphones.
- Eleven years is our website before last. Take a look at our new site, and at sections like Living Norbertine. Click on stories like Beautiful to Me and you’ll get an idea of why we’re excited to bring this richer experience to our online issue.
- Speaking of our online issue, we didn’t have one when last we redesigned. Over the last decade, the mag has added its online edition, e-newsletter, multimedia content and this blog. Nina has seen to it that the college has developed a vibrant and nationally recognized social media presence. Magazines have become two-way conversations, and we’re all about that. Talk to us, please!
- The college is, as you would expect, a different place than it was in 2002. It needs a magazine that reflects a school shooting for excellence as one of the top 10 Catholic liberal arts colleges in the country …
… and, by golly, we are going to have fun delivering just that!
