We’ve had a little work done

Welcome to the latest issue of your alumni magazine, which we hope you will view as a longtime friend who has had a nip here and a tuck there. Rather than wait for you to politely ask if we’ve had a little work done, we’re coming clean right upfront. During 2008, while members of the On Wisconsin team were producing your quarterly magazine, we also carved out time to redesign the magazine for the first time in a decade. We asked you how we were doing, digested your answers, added in some ideas of our own, and planned the changes that you’ll now find within these pages. Although the publication has evolved throughout its century-plus of connecting UW-Madison alumni and friends, and we’ve made incremental changes during recent years, it was time to take an honest look.

We’ve kept what you like: both short and long stories, a mix of complex and lighter topics, and a historical photo that closes each issue. We also listened carefully when you said that an alumni magazine is in a special category, that you want a printed version that you can pick up and put down, carry on a plane, or — as one devoted reader admitted — read in the bathtub.

We’ve taken away what you didn’t like: too many distracting elements in the news section, a lengthy opening essay, and type sizes that made you squint.

We’ve added what you asked for: reader-friendly type, bigger photos, nostalgia (such as Traditions), and straightforward section names (News & Notes, for example).

So please continue to think of us as your old friend On Wisconsin — but after a little freshening up.

Published in the Spring 2009 issue