Mizzou Weekly, the faculty and staff newspaper for the University of Missouri, has been a print-only periodical since its inception in 1978. That’s about to change. Without fanfare, last week’s edition was quietly posted online for the first time.
This week, we’ll toot our own horn a bit. Over the next year, Mizzou Weekly will come out in both print and online editions. Then, through reader research, we’ll ask the university community which format they are reading.
The move online was prompted in part by suggestions from the university community. Faced with serious budget uncertainties, campus leaders asked faculty and staff for money-saving suggestions in 2008. Several employees suggested that an electronic version of Mizzou Weekly could save both printing costs and trees.
Such a change has been discussed in recent years, but we stuck with the print-only version for a number of reasons. More than 1,000 MU employees, primarily staff members, do not have ready access to a computer at work. Mizzou Weekly covers printing costs through advertising sales.
There also was a question of whether many or most of our readers would prefer a print version. Several peer universities have gone to online-only campus newspapers only to return to print because of complaints from dissatisfied readers. We hope to find out our readers’ preference from a readership survey in 2010.
The new online edition of Mizzou Weekly was designed by staff from the MU Web Communications office. They designed it to be flexible in handling the kinds of content we can post on the site, so let us know what you think and what you’d like to see. You can e-mail your comments to mizzouweekly@missouri.edu.
One thing that won’t change is our deadlines. Mizzou Weekly is published every Thursday when classes are in session. The electronic version will also go online Thursday mornings, and the online edition could be updated throughout the week. Our deadline for calendar submissions is noon Thursday the week before publication. — John Beahler