How an RCNJ Story Became a Letter to the Editor in Rensselaer Magazine
Dave Aiello wrote, "The March 2001 edition of the print version of Rensselaer Magazine contains a letter to the editor that is signed by me. The letter points out the Campus Tour Web Site and says that I feel it is '...possibly the most user friendly Web Site that has ever been built at RPI.'"
"Some of you who are particularly careful readers of RCNJ.org may recognize those words, because they appear in an article on our Web Site that was posted in February. Read on for an explanation of how the text of this RCNJ article was republished by the alumni magazine."
Dave Aiello continued:
For those of you who have not had the opportunity to read the letter, which appears on page 4, here it is. The text written in italics originally appeared in the RCNJ article:
I just wanted to comment on the beautiful Virtual Campus Tour Web site produced by Marketing and Media Relations at Rensselaer.
This is possibly the most user friendly Web site that has ever been built at RPI. It shows off the campus, and is accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world, {sic} who has access to the Internet. I recommend it highly, particularly as an introduction to RPI for prospective students.
Check it out at http://www.rpi.edu/dept/NewsComm/tour/.
DAVE AIELLO '89
President
Rensselaer Club of New Jersey
www.rcnj.org
Denville, N.J.
Tracey Leibach, the managing editor of Rensselaer Magazine contacted me on February 21 to request the right to reprint the information. Her request was for the right to edit the information so that it would fit into the Letters to the Editor in terms of appropriate length and style. I asked that references to the Rensselaer Club of New Jersey and www.rcnj.org be added to the signature block in order to promote our organization. My requested changes were accepted, and I greatly appreciate that.
I am pointing this series of events out to our members and friends in order to illustrate the following points:
- This is yet another illustration of the fact that we are publishing things on RCNJ.org that the alumni community throughout the world wants to hear.
- This also illustrates that this site is being read by people in Troy every day.
- We will not stop our marketing efforts until we are accepted by the greater RPI community as a valuable source of alumni information in our own right.
I considered refusing the request to reprint our story because it seemed odd to edit a story from our Web Site into a letter to the editor in the alumni magazine. Then, I remembered our goals for RCNJ.org and I struck the best deal I could to put our message in front of more alumni.
If you have any comments or questions about this story, I would welcome them. Please attach them to the story itself by clicking on "Submit a new comment about the article" shown below, or send me an email.