On August 1, Princeton Alumni Publications, the corporation that has published the Princeton Alumni Weekly since 1991, was dissolved. The dissolution came after a special review committee, made up of 15 alumni — some associated with the magazine, others with the Alumni Council — decided to move PAW under the administrative oversight of the Alumni Council. The 100-year-old magazine is now considered an agency of the university, akin to the relationship several organizations have with Princeton, such as Princo and Blairstown. PAW staff members, who previously were considered university employees for purposes of human resources, now will be in a traditional chain of command with respect to university hierarchy.
The committee, convened last year, was chaired by university trustee and former chair of the Alumni Council Brent Henry ’69. A major concern was the way PAW derives its funding. Previously the classes paid about 60 percent of the magazine’s $1.3 million budget, the university about 10 percent. The remaining income was derived from advertising revenues.
In recent years many classes found it difficult to pay their PAW bills, which often came to nearly 100 percent of their budgets. Because all alumni receive the magazine, class members who pay their dues carry members who don’t.
Under the new arrangement, the university will pay one-third, the classes one-third, and advertising the final third.
Along with changing the financing, the committee rewrote PAW’s charter. The magazine will now be overseen by an 11-member board, comprising three alumni with professional experience in journalism, two alumni with professional experience in publishing, one graduate alumnus with professional experience in journalism or publishing, one member of the faculty, and four ex-officio members: the vice chair of the Alumni Council, the chair of the Alumni Council Committee on Class Affairs, the vice president for public affairs, and the director of the Alumni Council.
PAW’s editor, who retains sole responsibility for the editorial content of the magazine, reports to a committee of three: the chair and vice chair of the PAW board, who must be alumni with professional experience in the editorial side of journalism, and the director of the Alumni Council. Todd Purdum ’82, the Los Angeles bureau chief of The New York Times, is the chair of the new board; Jan Trembley *81, editor of Bryn Mawr’s alumni magazine, is the vice chair. Kathy Taylor ’74 is the director of the Alumni Council. The balance of power of this committee falls with the alumni members, who together have two votes; the Alumni Council has one.
In drafting the new charter, the review committee was mindful of the relationship PAW has with its readers. Brent Henry ’69, the chair of the committee, noted that PAW “is the principal means of communication among alumni, and between alumni and the university. We care deeply about preserving its editorial independence . . . and about its effectiveness in conveying to its readers as complete, accurate, and perceptive an understanding as possible of the university and the alumni.”
PAW’s former editorial board, chaired by Peter Brown ’70, saw the move as beneficial to all. “We were keen to give financial relief to the classes, and to call on a number of key university administrative services. The new PAW charter neatly achieves both those goals. It’s a good deal for everyone,” said Brown.
Several alumni, since learning of the new structure (February 23 issue), were alarmed about the future of PAW’s editorial independence and wrote to the magazine. PAW printed all of the letters. One, published in the July 5 issue, from Alvin Kracht ’49, a former longtime class secretary, asked that a $5-million endowment be established for the purpose of funding the magazine without university contributions. By the end of August, Kracht reported he had heard from a dozen alumni, but the money donated or pledged was less than $50,000.
The new charter is posted in our Web Exclusives.
This story was published in the Sept. 13, 2000, issue of PAW.
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