August 1, 2008

In response to a recent New York Times article about how alumni magazines are struggling to compete with social networking websites like Facebook, the Berkman Center’s Digital Natives project spoke with Cathy Chute, the publisher of Harvard Magazine.

“It’s not as if Facebook is really competition for class notes,” Chute said. “It’s just that there is an alternative way to have a community – a social network that traditionally for alumni has been in the pages of alumni magazines.”

Chute admitted that there has been a slight decline in the number of class notes submitted for younger alumni. She said there are over 240,000 Harvard alumni, with over 50,000 of them on the Harvard Facebook network. Of those on Facebook, about 6,000 are current undergraduates and about 20,000 to 30,000 are under the age of 27.

The magazine does not have any plans to publish its content solely online in the near future, Chute said. Instead, they have adapted to the rise in digital networks by promoting the magazine on Facebook and by developing online-only content.

Digital Natives is a research project aimed at better understanding young people’s experiences with digital media, including Internet, cell phones, and related technologies.

Watch the webcast of the interview on the Digital Natives blog.