University Affairs to relaunch in February with new look and feel

University Affairs magazine, which is published for faculty, administration, staff and graduate students at 95 universities and colleges across Canada, has for the past decade has had the same design (except for a cover change five years ago) is undergoing a metamorphosis with its forthcoming February issue.   Not only is the bilingual magazine (published by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada) changing to a slightly oversize magazine format (think enRoute) from its accustomed tabloid size, but it is moving to glossy,  FSC-certified paper. A matching website redesign will be happening in parallel.  One notable change is that the three features in the magazine will not all be translated in full as in the past; two of the three will be summarized. Here are a few questions to editor Peggy Berkowitz and her answers about the changes. 

Q. Who did the redesign?

A. The design firm is Underline Studio in Toronto (partners are Fidel Pena and Claire Dawson. The firm also does UofT Magazine. They are continuing as art director for the magazine.

Q. You say in this month's issue you are moving to better quality recycled paper? glossy? green certified?  

A. Yes, the paper is forest friendly certified and glossy. It was actually revenue-neutral to make this change, because by going to a smaller format the paper savings were significant.

Q. Are there any features or presentations being changed/added?  

A. It is a radical redesign and will  be a shocking change to readers - hopefully pleasantly so, once they get used to it. We know from our readership surveys that readers find us trustworthy and important in keeping up with the university scene in Canada. Our goal was to make our outstanding editorial content more enjoyable to read, and a little more edgy to attract younger readers. We wanted to turn it into a must-read that you want to read. We also wanted it to look like a real magazine rather than a newspaper-magazine hybrid.

We've expanded the front-of-book and made high-quality photos an intrinsic part of this department. To make up for that (mostly staff resources),  we have cut the Book Review (it was just one review per issue and we didn't feel we had the resources to turn it into a stronger section). We have a new columnist, from the administrator side (Doug Owram, head of UBC Okanagen) who will alternate with our popular columnist on ethics, Christine Overall. 

The look and feel of our news section (called Nota Bene) and treatment of French copy is very different. We will continue to run three feature articles, one of them translated in full, the other two summarized. The classified ad section has been designed in keeping with the rest of the book.