College Alumni Magazines Struggle to Compete With Facebook

New York Times
By CATE DOTY
Published: June 2, 2008

Most people read their college alumni magazines for the class notes, immediately flipping to the back to see who was married, had a baby or was promoted to an envy-inducing job. The columns tend to be meatiest at this time of year — class reunion season.

The advent of social networking on the Internet has created a quandary for these magazines, which want to maintain a conversation with alumni but have been slow to embrace the Web. Most schools have set up password-protected sites where graduates can change their contact information, drop a class note or donate money.

But younger alumni, accustomed to second-by-second updates from friends and classmates, are exchanging information in real time on Facebook and MySpace. Why wait for your alma mater to churn out a quarterly journal when you can Twitter all day?

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(Comment: Well, because those of us who work in advancement offices at universities and colleges still have to reach out to our older alumni. Multi-platform communication is no longer a luxury...in today's world, it is a necessity.)