New look for an old friend

Fortnightly returns this fall with a fresh design and a tighter focus on news about Kenyon and the Kenyon community. The Office of Public Affairs introduced some changes in the publication based on the results of last spring's readership survey as well as on its own sense of the newsletter's most useful contributions in a time when the campus relies heavily on e-mail and the Web.

In addition to stressing news-the survey revealed that news articles were read more often than any other items-Fortnightly will continue to offer sports stories, "Kenyon in the News," and "People," along with special notices and announcements of searches. The profiles of Kenyon faculty, administrators, and staff were also popular with survey respondents, as were the columns, and Fortnightly will continue to publish these features, alternating from issue to issue: this issue presents a column, the next one will offer a profile.

Less popular were the calendar of events and the sports scoreboard, both of which presented information that is available in a more convenient format, and in a much more timely way, via e-mail and on the Web. Fortnightly has eliminated the scoreboard and replaced the calendar with "Kenyon Beat," which highlights a few upcoming events. A complete schedule is available in "Kenyon Events," on the Web.

The birthday listings are also gone. Some readers loved them, others hated them, and many ignored them. The public affairs staff opted to save space, paper, and trees.

With respect to saving paper, the changes enabled the public-affairs staff to reduce the size of Fortnightly from eight pages to four. The streamlining presented an opportunity for a redesign. Emily Aldrich of Aldrich Design in Saint Paul, Minnesota-she also designs the Alumni Bulletin-crafted the new look.

Fortnightly was last redesigned in August 1998. The newsletter was created 1988, with the goal of collecting campus news and announcements in one place, thus reducing the flow of paper around campus, bringing some order to the dissemination of College news, and fostering a sense of community.

Last spring's survey, which elicited 111 responses, showed that the Kenyon community still values Fortnightly. Almost 84 percent of the respondents said they normally read all or most of every issue, and more than 92 percent said the newsletter did an excellent or good job of keeping people informed about news at Kenyon. Moreover, readers value the printed version of Fortnightly: fewer than 28 percent wanted the publication to be available only online. The Web version will continue to be an option, of course: it is listed on the Faculty & Staff gateway page, under "Useful Information for All Employees."