Syracuse Record to cease production after May 18 issue

Kevin Morrow
(315) 443-3784

Following the May 18, 2009, issue (the 1,345th issue in its nearly 39-year history) the Syracuse Record will officially retire-an action in keeping with Syracuse University’s commitment to sustainability and in recognition of more efficient means available to inform the University community.

A product of a different era, the Record predates many of the communications marvels that are now part of everyday life. When the publication debuted on Dec. 3, 1970, few outside of Defense Department researchers had an inkling of what’s now known as the Internet. All phones had cords, and ones used in public were found in booths. Desks had typewriters, not computers. Laptops didn’t exist. Neither did iPods or iTunes, or Facebook or YouTube, or Twitter, or instant messaging, or even e-mail.

It was five years before Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft. Six years before Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak introduced the first Apple computer. And long before HDTV, satellite radio, MP3s and Bluetooth.

The Record has existed through the contributions of hundreds of individuals through the years. Thousands more have read the articles, viewed the photos, and used the calendar listings to plan their activities.

Along the way, the Record has earned its share of kudos. Writers have won several awards for individual stories, and the Record itself won a major honor, named the best of its kind in 1999-earning a Gold Medal Award in the Internal Audience Tabloids category of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s annual Circle of Excellence Awards Program.

The Record is now able to retire only because several other very timely sources of University information are available, with more to come:

• Content seen in the Record can be viewed online at the Syracuse University News website (http://sunews.syr.edu) and the Syracuse University Events Calendar website (http://suevents.syr.edu).
• Syracuse University Today offers a handy digest of news, athletics news, campus announcements and events listings. E-mailed each weekday to students, faculty and staff, it is also available via free subscription to anyone: Send an e-mail to LISTSERV@listserv.syr.edu with the following message in the text: subscribe SUTODAY.
• News updates are now available via Twitter (follow SU news at http://twitter.com/SyracuseUniNews).
• In the very near future, an expanded SU news presence will be found on Facebook; an SU YouTube channel will be introduced; and the new Syracuse University News website will enable individuals to receive stories of their choosing via RSS feeds.

If you have questions or comments about the Record or any of these services described above, please contact the Office of News Services at 443-3784 or sunews@syr.edu.