Beginning in mid-January, Kent State University will launch a new, semiweekly message to share the most impactful news and stories about our campus community.
Kent State Today will highlight original and curated content about Kent State to faculty and staff in a dynamic way that includes an online newsroom where fresh stories will be posted every weekday.
“This is an exciting opportunity to tell the Kent State story in a whole new way,” says Eric Mansfield, executive director of university media relations. “Many of our best news stories currently appear across the university’s many webpages as well as on external channels, so Kent State Today brings them all to one place with new content posted every day.”
The email version of Kent State Today takes the place of e-Inside, which has been a weekly mainstay for decades in both its digital and print versions. The last edition of e-Inside will be delivered to email inboxes Dec. 10.
For 39 years, e-Inside and its print predecessor, Inside Kent State, have provided faculty and staff with important updates and information from and about Kent State.
Inside Kent State was first published on Oct. 1, 1979, as a biweekly publication during the semester and once a month in the summer. As the university grew, so did the publication, and in the early 2000s, it was a weekly print publication.
The online and email versions of the publication, e-Inside, were launched in 2002 in addition to the print version to make use of the conveniences of the internet.
Lin Danes, director of web services and interactive media at Kent State, was then the assistant media coordinator and helped produce Inside Kent State.
“I wrote the publication, handled the layout and oversaw production as well, with Quark if anyone can remember that,” Ms. Danes says. “Some of my favorite memories tied to Inside, and then e-Inside, came from interviewing revered faculty and staff like Halim El-Dabh and Judy Devine, as well as partnering with Stefanie Moore on a variety of web-based projects. In fact, it was Stefanie who transitioned Inside Kent State to its trendier, more relevant format.”
Ms. Moore, then assistant new media coordinator and now associate professor of public relations in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, was instrumental in modifying the paper to an online format.
“We transitioned to an electronic publication to keep up with trends in communication and the use of technology,” Ms. Moore says. “Many universities and organizations were making the switch to online publications.”
Ms. Moore says that e-Inside created more engagement with readers.
“Going online offered our readers the ability to post their own content and interact with each other in a new way,” Ms. Moore says. “E-Inside served us well for many years, and it makes me proud to know I was part of its legacy. I’m excited to see what’s next.”
And the Kent State community will see what is next in January. Kent State Today was developed by University Communications and Marketing's Web Team and is managed by the staff at University Communications and Marketing. The site is public and available to anyone interested in the latest stories from and about the university. University Communications and Marketing has plans to distribute the email version to students, alumni, media and the general public in the future.
“We have a lot of great news coming out of Kent State,” Mr. Mansfield says. “We want to make sure everyone knows about it. Students should be able to brag to their parents about what’s happening here. Alumni can be proud of their alma mater. Media can see the impact we’re having regionally and nationally. Our hopes, of course, are that this will spur others in the university to share their own good stories.”
A new email address, KentStateToday@kent.edu, is available for faculty and staff to send stories to be considered for inclusion in Kent State Today.
“If you have a story on your university website that you want to be considered in Kent State Today, send us the link,” Mr. Mansfield says. “We are always seeking new, fresh content about what our students, staff, faculty and alumni are doing to change the world.”
The Division of Human Resources will take over elements of e-Inside that relate to employee-focused communications; details of where to find that information in the new year will come soon.
Archives of e-Inside beginning with the publication of the Aug. 30, 2010, edition are still online. That format lasted for more than five years and was relaunched with a major update on Nov. 9, 2015.
Archives of e-Inside through 2015 still will be available at www.kent.edu/einside/einside-archives and older issues back to 2010 can be accessed at http://einside.kent.edu/Management%20Update%20Archive/einside/archives.html.
Keep up to date with the university at www.kent.edu/kent-state-today and be on the lookout for the new Kent State Today emails.