|
rAY CAVE, THE FORMER MANAGING
editor of Time magazine,
once said that "what matters
most is not what the editor puts into the
publication, but what the reader takes
away." How do I know what you've
taken away? Well, sometimes you tell
me--by sending e-mails and letters, by
calling, by responding to surveys, or by
tracking me down at Cornell events.
Sometimes you're pleased or even
inspired by what you've read in our
pages; other times you're unhappy,
either with what we've chosen to cover
or with what we've excluded.
 Too often, though, I find myself
wondering what you're thinking. We
may cover a controversial subject, one
that I'm sure many Cornellians have
strong feelings about, yet I will receive
only one or two letters--or none at all.
(This issue, thankfully, seems to be an
exception; see page 6.) Part of the problem,
I know, is that all of us are too busy these days, and there just
isn't time to compose a thoughtful letter (or even to fire off
a
brief, sarcastic e-mail). But because the editor connects the people
who create a magazine with the people who read it, hearing
from both sides is vital if I'm to do my job well. (And the CAM
staff is not shy about expressing their opinions--trust me.)
We've tried to encourage your feedback in a number of ways,
from notices in the magazine to personal entreaties and
announcements.We also participate in a cooperative project with
the other publications in the Ivy League Magazine Network that
has established online reader panels for
all of our magazines. (To sign up, go to:
CornellAlumniMagPanel.com and complete
the short registration survey.)
I still feel, though, that we're not getting
nearly enough feedback from the
dedicated alumni who are our most
important--and most valuable--readers.
Therefore, we're going to try something
new this year. We've set aside an
hour each day at Reunion 2007 for
informal focus groups where you can sit
down with me and other members of
the CAM staff and tell us what you think about the magazine: what you like,
what you don't like,
what we could do better.We're eager to hear what you have to say,
and I hope that many of you who are returning to campus in
June will take advantage of this opportunity (see the box below
for when and where). If you're not coming to reunion this year,
well . . . I'd still like to hear from you, so please call or write.
CAM
is your magazine, owned and published by Cornell alumni for
Cornell alumni, so please give us the feedback we need to make
it better and more responsive to your interests.
-- Jim Roberts '71 |
