Dear Rotman Magazine

From: Roger Martin
Reply-To: alumniatrotman.utoronto.ca
To: thomas.purvesatgmail.com
Subject: Reminder: please give us your feedback this week on Rotman Magazine

Question 7: In your view, how could we improve the magazine?

I’m barely aware of it (even though i would like to be). I remember seeing the last issue, but if you asked me I couldn’t recall any of the articles or sections (thus many of these survey questions carry little meaning for me).

Maybe it’s just me, but in my case, the magazine doesn’t have enough frequency or currency to even get anywhere near my daily mental attention space or “consideration set” as they’d say in marketing class, when it comes to business knowledge. I get most of my leading edge business knowledge online these days through the blogosphere and rss feeds as opposed to on dead trees.

Certainly, there is a role for the glossy dead tree version but i think the magazine needs to get with the times and have a vastly improved online strategy. Instead of awkward/static pdfs, the magazine/the school needs to have a blog, it should allow comments, it should be a forum, it should enable conversations about issues and between alumni, alumni and faculty and students etc. I think it could be doing vastly more to connect the school with the community and professional world. But it’s failing at that. A lot of great content stranded in a stack of glossy dead trees that too few of us remember to pay any attention to.

Imagine the knowledge, the connections and the brand equity you could build if you just opened up all of the rich content and great minds inside that school to wider discourse on a global scale. And what an amazing built-in audience/community you have to draw from. Rotman alumni are everywhere and no doubt many would have leading experience or insights to offer on nearly any subject covered in the magazine.

If done right, a properly interactive Web strategy would benefit

Your audience
1. Enhanced access to content they might otherwise have missed
2. Access to a greater depth of information on any topic that could be possible in the print edition
3. Networking opportunities and abilities to discover interact with, connect with experts/alumni/members of the community

For the school
1. through more regular interaction, build a deeper sense of attachment to the school (think how this will help in fund-raising)
2. Through more richly developed ideas and a wider audience, enhance the brand of the school
3. Through greater interest, drive more copies of the print version

The tools are out there, he would not be so hard to set up. And the best part is, your community will generate the bulk of the value-added content for you.

anyway, this is what I do these days, take these comments for what you will. If you’d like to, call me. For my alma mater I’d gladly donate what expertise I can offer.

[link] the Rotman School of Management