On a recent trip, I noticed that the seat pocket in front of me contained no airline magazine. I connected this to the need to simplify plane cleaning during COVID-19.

It turns out, though, that in-flight magazines were not temporarily removed. They have been canceled.

Despite readership in the millions, the airlines saw these magazines as an unnecessary expense. Nowadays, passengers are more likely to flip through their phone or a paperback than to dive into the pages of Sky or American Way. Airlines say that online content can connect just as well as the print magazine — with the added benefit of no one beating you to the crossword puzzle.

This, of course, feels similar to the debate playing out in colleges, universities, and independent schools: Shouldn’t schools instead get with the times, the question goes, and take their magazine content online? Or is a print magazine still the best way to connect with far-flung audiences?

In 2020, the debate grew urgent amid COVID-19. Just as with the airlines, some schools froze publishing schedules and reallocated both budget and staff to more pressing needs. Other magazines went online-only with a digital edition to save on printing and postage.

Where the need for cost-cutting has eased (and, to be clear, many schools are still feeling the pinch from COVID), should schools now go back to hard-copy magazines?

Yes, I would suggest: Schools should prioritize the print magazine ahead of a digital versions.

Print remains the better way to reach, inspire, and persuade an audience, and a mailed publication signals to readers that the school knows and cares about them. Digital alternatives just don’t do as well at these jobs. They cost less to produce, but the return on that investment is worse.

Still, why not survey our audiences about what they want? CASE makes a terrific tool for this, and at $500, the cost is manageable.

When the George School in Pennsylvania did this a few years ago, for example, it found that nearly two-thirds of survey respondents preferred print.

Erin Peterson at Capstone Communications makes a solid point: In this climate, we should anticipate more scrutiny of magazine ROI. Printing and mailing just one issue of a magazine to a few thousand alumni costs many thousands of dollars; is that money well spent? Do people actually open the issue? Will they find something that grabs their attention? Again, survey data can be helpful here.

We could even back up a step and ask whether and how our magazines achieve school strategic goals. We may discover that, over time, the magazine lost that focus in favor of highlighting the latest and loudest.

Summer is a good time for communications directors to take this holistic look at their magazines and begin to explore whether changes are needed.

2022 conferences: A great place for growth

When did you last invest in your professional development?

While PD may have fallen off your radar during the height of COVID, plan now to come back to it in the coming year.

One idea is to share your knowledge by presenting at an educational conference. I did this a couple years back, and I highly recommend the experience for any comms director. Plus, the big conferences — CASE-NAIS and NAIS Annual — don’t get many proposals on communications issues.

If you have an idea for a presentation, now is the time to make your pitch. Both CASE-NAIS and NAIS are booking their 2022 conferences. Here is the link to submit a proposal to CASE-NAIS, with a deadline of May 30, and here is the one for NAIS, with a deadline of June 7.

CASE will go with a live conference in Denver (running Jan. 23-25) that will feature some virtual content; NAIS is still considering whether its March 2-4 gathering will be in person or online, or both.

(NAIS’s conference theme, by the way, is “Remembering Our Why, Finding Joy and Inspiration in Our Work.” Hmm, I feel like I’ve read this sentiment somewhere recently.

Don’t-miss clicks

• Whether remote work should remain an option for employees looks certain to be a hot topic all summer. I was surprised to read a survey finding that “Black employees have a more pronounced preference for continued remote work than White employees” and that office culture is a big reason why. Will schools find workplace flexibility to be one way to attract and retain employees of color? And what does this survey finding suggest for students of color, for whom remote learning may be unavailable?
• How ready is your school’s education plan for 2021-2022? Independent School Management says that you should finalize the plan shortly after graduation, a timeline that makes sense to me. Although COVID dynamics are changing quickly this spring, not least with last week’s new CDC recommendations, parents need information. Hopefully, you’re already describing to them what the improving climate means for your school.
• The Philadelphia Inquirer and ProPublica published a revealing look at governing board division at the Milton Hershey School. Given the messy power dynamics at play, I applaud comms director Lisa Scullin’s statement to the reporters — informative without taking sides; no easy feat.
• Last month’s Refill mentioned the heavy toll of this year on comms directors and DEI directors. Education Week says to add school superintendents (and, by extension, heads of school) to the list, reporting “an uptick in superintendent retirements and resignations so far this year.”