Inside Iowa State

April 17, 2009

Dear Readers,

Your next (May 1) print issue of Inside Iowa State also will be your last.

After 17-plus years, including the last five in which it was available online only during the summer months, the newsprint version of the faculty/staff publication will be discontinued. Our reasons include:

• Broader access among employees to computers in their workplaces, and a steady and willing migration to online reading (as you indicated in our last three reader surveys)
• Desire to contribute to a more sustainable campus community
• Need to reduce our operating budget (this change will save approximately $19,000 annually)

We know we're disappointing some readers. You like to read at home in the evening, you prefer looking at a page rather than a screen (we do, too), your spouse also likes to read it. But in our most recent (February) reader survey, 86 percent of the sample population who responded said they would not be inconvenienced if the print version were discontinued.

So, we're working now to develop an integrated university news web site that will be useful and easily accessible to the Iowa State community. We'll share more details about that project as we get closer to introducing it. We'll also offer an RSS news feed dedicated to faculty/staff news as well as the weekly news e-mail, Inside Update.

Please feel free to send us your suggestions or comments on how we can improve our delivery of university news to you. This is your chance to influence the next rendition of Inside Iowa State. Write to us at inside@iastate.edu.

Inside Iowa State staff
Office of University Relations

ISU retirees and other subscribers:

Inside Iowa State will continue to publish its online format (www.inside.iastate.edu). You also may subscribe to a free weekly news e-mail (Inside Update). Send your e-mail address to inside@iastate.edu.