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Why the “Alumni” in Yale Alumni Magazine? Some years ago, a proposal was made to drop the word "alumni" from the title of the Yale Alumni Magazine. The move apparently reflected a feeling that the term evoked mere boosterism. The Board of Directors of the magazine duly considered the idea—and vigorously rejected it. Not only did the directors believe that "alumni" had a positive connotation in the Yale context, reflecting ongoing concern for superior education, but the board also felt that people who had passed through the institution were entitled to a publication that made clear in the title that it was edited for them. The Yale Alumni Magazine was to remain their magazine, about their university—a magazine that would, as an early editor wrote, "not lend itself as a club to any person or party, but welcome fair and reasonable discussion."
The Birth of an Idea The first issue of what was to become the Yale Alumni Magazine appeared on September 29, 1891, as the Yale Alumni Weekly. The idea originated with undergraduates at the Yale Daily News, who saw the new publication as a commercial opportunity. Some years later, the students put the weekly in the hands of a small group of alumni. But the new owners quickly embraced the original declaration of purpose, that the publication would serve as "an organ for the expression of graduate opinion upon topics concerning the welfare and interests of Yale, and will act as a bond between the Alumni themselves and between the Alumni and the University." The oldest independent alumni magazine in the United States, the Yale Alumni Magazine now has lots of company at other institutions. But it occupies a special position as an independent journal of information about its university.
"General-Special-Interest" In recent decades, the magazine business has seen a steady decline in "general-interest" publications. (Remember the Saturday Evening Post, Look, and the weekly Life?) At the same time, the industry has seen an explosion of "special-interest" magazines—Fine Homebuilding, Triathlete, and Teen People, to name a few. The Yale Alumni Magazine occupies a unique position in the publishing world. On one hand, it offers the sort of wide-ranging coverage of old. On the other, everything in the magazine is written to serve the readers' interest in and concern for Yale. Any number of magazines can report on great issues under debate on the educational stage; only one can give you the inside view of those issues from an institution to which alumni have a special, lifelong relationship.
What Goes In? Choosing what to cover at an institution of Yale's size, complexity, and influence is often daunting. Although born of the college newspaper, the Yale Alumni Magazine now reports on the entire university. A particular issue is likely to contain a feature on research (autism, environmental science), one on university policy (globalization, Yale's unions), and one on student affairs (degree special students, binge drinking). In addition, there is a regular "Light and Verity" section of the latest news developments on campus, and a host of other departments from the nostalgic ("Old Yale") to the political ("Forum").
Who Runs the Yale Alumni Magazine? In the early days, the Yale Alumni Magazine got along with an editor in charge of the entire operation. But in the 1960s, when coverage of such issues as civil rights and the Vietnam War sparked heated debate around the university and among the alumni, the long-dormant Board of Directors was revived with a broader role. The goal was to give all interested parties a voice at the table, but to guarantee that editorial decisions would rest with the magazine. While the Yale Alumni Magazine remains independent of the university, the board is now made up of four representatives of the Association of Yale Alumni, three representatives of the journalistic and publishing professions, three members of the faculty, two students (one undergraduate and one graduate), three members of the university administration, and the magazine's editor.
Who Pays the Bills? Ever since its founding by those entrepreneurial staffers on the Yale Daily News, the Yale Alumni Magazine has paid its own way. Nowadays, approximately one third of the money for operating expenses comes from commercial advertising. Almost all of the rest comes from group subscriptions purchased by Yale College classes with funds raised through class dues. The university provides additional money that is used to help distribute the magazine to faculty members, administrators, and alumni of the graduate and professional schools, and to subsidize subscriptions for the classes. In addition, the magazine is now embarking on a fundraising program to help us reach a larger alumni readership.
The Readers' Role The people who read the Yale Alumni Magazine are also the people who write a substantial portion of it. The magazine publishes roughly 60,000 words of Alumni Notes in every issue, more than any other alumni magazine. It does so because Yale alumni do interesting things, and because they are interested in what their fellow alumni are doing. The writing is done entirely by the corresponding secretaries elected by their classmates. But every other member of the Yale alumni body also has a claim on the Yale Alumni Magazine's pages. Whether the issue is educational policy, fund-raising, tenure, women's studies, or the fate of the football team, the "Letters to the Editor" column is the most powerful proof of the Yale Alumni Magazine's value as a medium for alumni participation.
The Past and the Future As the Internet and websites have come to play such an important part in the flow of information, the Yale Alumni Magazine has been expanding its offerings to its subscribers. The magazine's website includes the entire text of the current issue. Having covered Yale for more than a century, the Yale Alumni Magazine has also developed an incomparable store of historical material about the university. The most recent material is now available electronically in an archive of past feature stories. (The Yale Alumni Magazine also provides alumni with searchable online access to current and past Alumni Notes.) |
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