University Relations this month launched a website, Tufts Now, that compiles various university media outlets into a single, interactive news source geared toward all members of the Tufts community.
Now.tufts.edu, which went live Feb. 1, combines content formerly published in the Tufts Journal and Tufts E−News, Tufts' official newspaper and online news source, respectively. The website is designed to act as a one−stop location for all Tufts−related news, according to Manager of Web Content and Strategy for Web Communications Georgiana Cohen.
"Before, there was no home for all this different content. What we wanted to do here was bring everything together that's telling the stories of Tufts," Cohen said.
In addition to Tufts faculty and students, freelance writers and external news sources will contribute to the website, according to Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler. The site will integrate a variety of web content, including feature articles and links to non−Tufts news sources, blogs and social media sites.
"We wanted to get the perspective of what external audiences are saying about Tufts, not just Tufts itself," Thurler explained.
The site features interactive elements like rotating book recommendations, a weekly poll and an "ask the expert" section.
"A lot of these features are new. They're actually things we added to this site compared to what we did on the Tufts Journal and E−news sites," Taylor McNeil, senior news editor for the News Publications Group in Tufts University's Office of Publications and former editor of the Tufts Journal, said.
Visitors have the option to subscribe to a bi−weekly Tufts Now e−mail newsletter.
McNeil encouraged users to contact University Relations with questions and suggestions.
"We're interested in learning how we can reflect back to Tufts what is going on at the university," McNeil said. "We hope we'll hear from students and other audiences."
Archived content from E−News and the Tufts Journal will continue to be accessible online. The staffs from the two websites have been merged and are running the new website with the help of student interns.
Planning for the revamped university news webpage began in December 2009 after the redesigned Tufts homepage was unveiled in August of that year, according to Thurler.
"After we launched the new Tufts homepage, we realized it would make sense for there to just be one single source for news and information coming out of Tufts," McNeil said.
Cohen and McNeil's initial discussions about the merge were followed by months of planning.
"There was a lot of time spent thinking on how to take all this different content and bring it into one hub of information and news," Cohen said. "There's a whole lot of thinking and talking before you write the first line of code or before you draw the first pixel."
University Relations solicited input during the website's development from departments across the university's campuses, according to McNeil.
"We gathered a great number of people from around Tufts to weigh in on their thoughts," McNeil said.
Thurler said this cooperative effort was designed to make the website accessible to the entire Tufts and non−Tufts communities, in contrast to other websites like the undergraduate−focused TuftsLife.
Sophomore Logan Cotton, a Tufts Community Union senator and editor−in−chief of independent music blog Uphill/Downtown, was impressed with the layout of the site.
"As a social media platform I think this is a great change," Cotton said. "It's a lot of information and stimuli but it's well−organized and isn't overwhelming."
