posted on March 13: Introducing The McMaster Review

They say that April showers bring May flowers. April at McMaster will bring a new monthly publication as well.

The first issue of The McMaster Review will appear on campus and in employee mailboxes in mid-April. The eight- to 12-page publication will be published monthly.

The new publication retains a newspaper style but boasts a more contemporary, newsmagazine design and includes colour photography. The publication was designed by awarding-winning graphic artist and designer Peter Enneson of Toronto.

It will be produced on recycled and recyclable white bond paper.

The deadline for all submissions (editorial and advertising) to the first issue is Wednesday, March 20. An advertising rate sheet can be viewed at http://www.mcmaster.ca/ua/opr/reviewrates.pdf. Advertisements may be placed by calling Pat Miladin at ext. 24073. For questions about editorial submissions, contact Kelly Curwin at ext. 23662. Editorial submissions may be e-mailed to review@mcmaster.ca.

After the Courier ceased publication in May 2001, the Office of Public Relations planned to launch the Review by the fall of last year. Production was delayed to allow sufficient time to conduct an internal communications audit and to determine what type of publication would be most effective for the primary audience — University employees.

Public relations conducted focus groups and an informal telephone survey among University employees to obtain feedback on whether an internal publication was needed and desired, and if so, what format it should take and what kind of content it should include. In all, about 40 people from various areas across campus were involved in the process.

“Before we launched this new publication we wanted to be sure that the format and information were indeed what the University community wanted,” said Andrea Farquhar, director of public and government relations.

“The survey results and our focus group discussions indicated overwhelmingly that faculty and staff are interested in receiving a regular print publication that contains news, features and other relevant information about the University and our community of educators, researchers and students. Our goal is to create a newsmagazine to complement the information we provide on the Daily News and to better inform our readers and stakeholders about what's happening on campus and the issues facing McMaster.”

Farquhar said a focus of the new publication will be on providing more information on emerging issues at McMaster. Topics include the campus plan, environmental and space issues, the double cohort, faculty renewal, research initiatives and organizational change.

Many survey respondents favoured a publication similar to The McMaster Courier. In terms of frequency, a monthly publication was the most popular choice of those surveyed.

Previous to the survey, some readers of both the Daily News and The McMaster Courier had expressed concern about a duplication of material. However, this was not a concern among those surveyed. A number of respondents felt that the information (or some extract of the original) should appear in both communication vehicles.

Some said that they didn't have access to a computer, so a print vehicle was the better medium for them. Others, including those who had regular access to a computer, explained that they didn't get to read the Daily News daily. They, too, expressed interest in a print vehicle, which they could fold up and read on the bus or stuff into their briefcases to read at their leisure.

The survey results also provided feedback on the Daily News, which will be incorporated in a future redesign of the site, and recommendations on how to improve internal communications. These included providing all members of the University community with computer access and eliminating junk mail from the University's e-mail system.