Heather Barros

Ricardo Barros

Each summer, right after the PAW staff sends the July issue off to the printer, planning for the next year begins. This summer was busier than most.

As you flip through our pages you’ll notice some changes, beginning with this Editor’s Letter — which you now find in our letters section, as part of a conversation with our readers. Our “Moment With” interview — in this issue, it’s with campaign-finance expert Massie Ritsch ’98 — has moved from our last page to a new home inside the magazine. In its place you will find a feature called “Final Scene” — a campus photograph by freelance photographer Ricardo Barros. At their best, these images will evoke memories of spots you may have passed hundreds of times with head down or eyes straight ahead, those corners of The Best Old Place of All that deserve more attention. The idea for this feature was sparked by readers who wrote to us about the beautiful images by Barros that accompanied our June 11 story about the landscaping of Beatrix Jones Farrand. Please let us know if you like it, and suggest views that we might photograph.

Princeton Alumni Weekly

Ray Ollwerther ’71, left, and Brett Tomlinson

Most of our work this summer, however, went toward the launch of PAW’s new Web site, paw.princeton.edu. PAW Online editor Ray Ollwerther ’71, a longtime print journalist who also is managing editor of our print edition, coordinated our move into the magazine world’s modern age. Like our old site, the new one will host the complete contents of our print issues, but in a format that is much more inviting and easier to navigate. The site is home to our Weekly Blog, posted each Wednesday by associate editor Brett Tomlinson, where you will find news and sports updates along with a new “Tiger of the Week” feature (we invite nominations). Whenever possible, we will post video clips, slide shows, and other materials that bring another dimension to articles in the magazine.

The new Web site — as you’ll read in our story on page 14 — makes it easy for you to contribute your own opinions by posting comments to our stories and letters. You now can write remembrances of classmates who have died, to run along with their memorials online.

There are many things that we at PAW are still learning about online journalism. But PAW, in both its print and online incarnations, always is part of a Princeton dialogue — among alumni, between the University and its graduates, and between you and us. PAW Online now offers new and timely ways to be part of this conversation. Tell us what you like and what you don’t like, and we’ll do our best to respond. Post your comments at paw.princeton.edu, e-mail us at paw@princeton.edu, or send something the old-fashioned way to 194 Nassau St., Suite 38, Princeton, NJ, 08542.  

With every issue through next July, in print and on the Web, we hope to give you something to talk about.

Marilyn H. Marks *86
mmarks@princeton.edu