With the transition of Inside Illinois to an online-only format in the next few weeks, I admit I’m having a bit of an identity crisis. What will I tell people I “do”? For the past two decades, I’ve simply said, “I’m the editor of the faculty-staff newspaper at the University of Illinois.”
Laying out a print newspaper has been a labor of love, and I admit I’ll miss it. But while the paper is going away, the news will be more vibrant than ever. Inside Illinois lives on – just in a different format.
And that format will enable us to deliver campus news to our readers in a much more timely manner that our twice-monthly format just didn’t allow.
Inside Illinois Online will allow us to post news as it happens and serve as a more sustainable and cost-effective news resource. And that is pretty exciting.
New website
My colleagues have been busy designing a new website that we plan to premiere around Sept. 1. Starting Sept. 3 and on each Thursday thereafter, every faculty and staff member (and other subscribers) will receive an email highlighting new campus features and the week’s top news. Our website will be updated frequently, so you’ll want to return often. We also will send out email alerts when we have breaking news.
Faculty and staff members will be automatically subscribed to the email. Others (including retirees, alumni and students) may subscribe/unsubscribe by filling in a simple online form. A .edu email address is not required.
We are moving to a .info site so that we may continue to sell advertising. Once all of our old content is moved over, there will be a redirect from our previous site, so you will be able to find us. Or you can just wait for that first email.
Online ads
Hopefully your unit has received our new advertising rate card. If not, you can go online and download a rate card and a contract. The information is available at go.illinois.edu/iiads.
Editorial content
You also will see a few changes editorially. We plan to have more features on the interesting people on our campus. We also are going to split our On the Job column between academic professionals and civil service employees because we felt academic professionals were underrepresented in the paper. Additionally, Eweek will be transferred over to Inside Illinois, so you will now receive it on Thursday in the Inside Illinois email. The way you submit an Eweek item will remain the same, although the deadline probably will change. That will be announced soon.
Submitting content
The deadline for submitting an item for Brief Notes will be eight days prior to the email in which you would like it to appear. That will give us plenty of time to edit items and post them for the next week. To avoid confusion, include the date (of the email)you would like them to appear. And you can always send us an email with story ideas or faculty and staff achievements.
If you get nostalgic for the print version of Inside Illinois, all the past issues will be posted on our website.
In a reader survey years ago, many employees said they wanted to keep the print version because they liked to read Inside Illinois during lunch and on the bus. With the popularity of smartphones today, Inside Illinois’ mobile-friendly website will allow our readers to take the online version with them wherever they go.
As for my identity crisis … I’m working on it. Our mission for Inside Illinois remains unchanged: to deliver an interesting and informative mix of campus and research news to the Urbana campus community.
I’ll just have to get used to saying, “I’m the editor of Inside Illinois Online.”
If you are receiving the print version of Inside Illinois but you are not a current faculty or staff member (such as retiree subscribers or paid subscribers), you will need to go online to subscribe to the weekly email.
By subscribing, you will receive an email on Thursdays highlighting the week’s top news. You may unsubscribe at any time.