Research Magazine Endeavors Falls to Budget Cuts

The magazine, which is published three times per year and is mailed with the Carolina Alumni Review as a benefit to life members of the GAA, will cease print publication after the winter 2012 issue.

Editor Jason Smith and a four-person staff will continue to publish the online version, found at endeavors.unc.edu.

“In the months ahead, we will re-examine how we communicate about research at Carolina and how we can continue to reach diverse audiences — alumni, [UNC] faculty and staff, trustees, public officials, funding agencies, among others,” Barbara Entwisle, vice chancellor for research, wrote in an email to senior members of the UNC research community. “We will look to enhance our Web presence, use a variety of online tools, and seek out opportunities to partner with other units to help highlight the breadth and depth of research at Carolina.”

Smith said the cut represents the $75,000 a year needed to print the magazine at its 48-page size; if reduced to 32 pages, it would cost about $63,000. He said the staff will concentrate more on targeted communications, such as special reports to both people on campus and external audiences, including the N.C. General Assembly.

Endeavors has won seven awards since 2000 from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education:

• Silver medal, Periodical Staff Writing for External Audiences, 2010;
• Silver medal, Research Magazines, 2007;
• Gold medal, Research Magazines, 2006;
• Gold medal, Periodical Staff Writing for External Audiences, 2006;
• Silver medal, Individual Photography, 2005, for Smith’s image of a girl playing in a fountain;
• Bronze medal, Best Articles of the Year, 2004, for the article “Mole in the Mouse House,” by former editor Neil Caudle; and
• Award of Excellence, CASE Advancement Awards competition, 2000.

Smith and his predecessor, Caudle, both estimated there are about 40 to 50 university research magazines comparable to Endeavors across the country.

Caudle is about to start a new one at Clemson University. Caudle retired from UNC last year and has been hired by Clemson to get its magazine off the ground.

Editor’s note: Endeavors can be found online now – at endeavors.unc.edu – and its staff makes updates online at least once a week. Readers do not need to make a request to continue seeing it.

We are talking about how the Review can highlight material from Endeavors. We began this relationship more than 11 years ago because Endeavors was covering so much that we simply could not, and we are seeking ways to continue to be a conduit for this work. UNC attracted more than $740 million in 2009-10 in federal grants and contracts – much of it taxpayers’ money – and an important obligation is for all of us to know about how that money is used and what a difference it makes in our lives. So we’ll do what we can. We can reuse articles from Endeavors on occasion in the Review, and we’ll look for other ways to remind interested readers that these stories are available.