From the Nominator

Bennington is the first and only college in the country publishing a magazine organized around a question, asked of its readers, whose selected and edited responses compose the feature well of each issue. Bennington does not treat its alumni as passive readers, but active and engaged participants in the making and shaping of the magazine. In our redesign we have simplified our departments, stripping down a once crowded organization into three department pillars: Headliners, Features, and Notes. This simplification of the magazine structure was developed for alumni readers, in response to their organic reading patterns and driven by insights as to what draws alumni to read their institutional magazines in this way. The Bennington redesign innovates without adding budget, time, or resources; it has expanded its pages, voices, and aims even while resources have contracted. Working with these restrictions, Bennington has helped to forge a new way forward for small, mighty, courageous publications looking to put their alumni readers first, and daring enough to enter a conversation with them on the pages.

From the Judges

When Bennington undertook the task of reimagining their magazine, they wanted the final product to inspire alumni engagement, reveal connections, reflect the world both on and off-campus, be inclusive of a diversity of voices, and be innovative. To achieve those goals, they did what few schools would do: put their fate in the hands of their readers. Before each issue, the editor devises a theme in the form of a question and calls for submissions. Not just written pieces but sketches, poems, short stories, and paintings are all considered for print. The results showed that Bennington knows its audience well. The beauty of this model isn't actually the magazine at all. It is the strengthening of relationships between alumni and the college. It is also in the pride and identity fostered for the readers as well as the content creators. Bennington is a small college with a positive and inspiring message.