Media representatives (l-r) Tom Halligan, University Business; Greg Winter, New York Times; and Steve Drummond, National Public Radio, discussed what is newsworthy today in higher education.

What is newsworthy today in higher education, and how can small and mid-sized independent colleges and universities in particular attract media attention? Three media representatives during a panel discussion presented tips that were meant to aid presidents in understanding the factors that might lead to increased visibility for their campuses in newspapers, magazines, and broadcast media.
     Greg Winter, higher education reporter for the New York Times, Tom Halligan, editor-in-chief of University Business, and Steve Drummond, national assignment editor overseeing education coverage for National Public Radio, warned against pitching self-serving stories. “There are 4,000 colleges and universities out there, and in my entire lifetime, I won’t be able to write 4,000 profiles,” Winter said. He explained that there is no shortage of education stories, so reporters often can pick those that appeal personally to them. “I try to publish stories that interest our readers and my special area of interest is money,” he explained. “I’ll write about equity, access, taxes, affordability, financial aid, and so on. I probably won’t write about a college’s individual efforts to recruit under-represented populations unless there’s something there that is truly unusual or is a part of a larger trend that represents a critical mass larger than a single institutional effort.”
     Drummond noted that NPR covers several issues routinely and consistently. These include: “Who gets into college and why?” “What’s happening with tuition and costs?” “How are admissions processes changing?” “Are prospective students gaining access fairly?” “How will issues of homeland security and global conflicts affect campuses?” “Are the rights of students being compromised by military recruiting practices, free speech issues, foreign student visas?” He pointed out that NPR has hundreds of member stations across the country that use regional stories. He also suggested that college presidents might wish to provide commentaries for “Morning Edition” or “All Things Considered,” NPR’s two most popular programs with several million listeners.
     Halligan, whose magazine, University Business, has a circulation of 40,000 that includes campus administrators across the country, explained that magazines today often spend money on other special ventures, such as webinars, satellite seminars, conferences and exhibits, and advertising ventures. These ventures provide other avenues for the colleges to get out their stories. “Colleges,” he said, “can discover what the magazine will be covering weeks and months ahead by looking up the magazine’s editorial calendar on the website.” His periodical covers a broad spectrum of academe, including Florida schools that weathered the hurricanes last fall, and how technology and business affect the future. He advises campus PR officers to keep their contact lists up to date with names of current, not past, reporters covering a beat.
     During the Q&A session, Joseph Fink, president of Dominican University of California, suggested that the media should be doing more stories about the fact that private colleges and universities are increasingly enrolling and graduating more low-income and minority students than are public institutions. “Demographic changes in California have led to a real shift in the enrollment patterns of low-income students—more are going to private colleges now, such that private institutions in the state are now taking over the role that public colleges and universities traditionally had—educating low-income and minority students. Private colleges in California are committed to adjusting to these changes and ensuring that these students are taken care of. This is a new and important story—and the media should be paying attention to it,” Fink suggested.
     At this, Winter perked up and said “That achieves the benchmark of news—if private institutions are indeed taking over the responsibility for educating a certain group of people, and we can justify that statistically with enrollment data—that is a story.”