October 21, 2004
UW’s new magazine invites the public into ‘our house’
The UW has a new magazine, but you won’t find it on the newsstands. You will find it through the portal of the central image on the UW’s home page. Roll your mouse over that image and the message will appear, “Visit DiscoverUW magazine.” Click, and you’re faced with one large, constantly-changing image and nine smaller ones, lined up under the categories people, community and innovation. Click on any of those images and you’re led to a story about the UW.
“DiscoverUW is about creating access for the public,” said Harry Hayward, director of strategic communications for University Relations. “What we want to do is find ways that are graphical and interesting to invite them into the house.”
Hayward is serving as editor of the new magazine. He said that stories featured in the magazine come, for the most part, from other University publications, such as Columns and Northwest Science and Technology magazines, and of course, University Week.
“One of the ways that I think DiscoverUW is different from just pushing out the news is that it will always have some kind of compelling illustration — something that’s intriguing and interesting, maybe a bit provocative, that people will want to find out more about,” Hayward said.
And he hopes that in the future, content will come from a wider variety of sources. The site might also contain virtual tours of various campus attractions.
Hayward said DiscoverUW was created out of a desire to engage the public more and give them more access to the University. “We found a number of our peers had some kind of magazine format where they posted stories that had great illustrations,” he said. “And we thought that would be a nice way to approach the subject matter. Ours is unique, however, because it’s set up to be constantly in flux. There are a lot of others that went up with 10 stories a year ago and those 10 stories are still there. Ours will always be new and refreshed.”
Anyone with a potential story for DiscoverUW should send e-mail to discoveruw@u.washington.edu.
