A Way to Slim Down and Still Have Our Cake

You may have noticed a slight change in the size of this issue of Stanford Business. If you looked first at your class's alumni notes, you might have noticed the reason: There are fewer classes covered. We are publishing more class notes and pictures than ever, but the section looks smaller because we are printing three different editions. There is overlap so all alumni still will be able to browse information about classes before and after their own.

In the past, we've been able to increase the number of pages to accommodate each new class. Now, like many of you and your businesses, we need to find ways to control costs without compromising the integrity of the magazine. We could reduce the space allotted to each class or the number of pictures, but these options don't appeal to us. Publishing different versions allows us to let the class secretaries have the same space they have had while saving on paper and mailing costs. For instance, Edition 1 this issue covers MBA classes from 1934 through 1982, Edition 2 covers 1978 through 1993, and Edition 3 covers 1987 through 2003. The PhD, Sloan, and SEP programs continue to have their separate columns covering multiple years and will be included in Edition 2. The "In Memoriam" column is in all editions, and we have added a School resources directory with phone numbers and email addresses for various departments of the School.

Before we decided to try three printed editions, we sent a survey to an eighth of our alumni readers asking them how many class years they read. The vast majority said they read only their own class column or one or two classes on either side of theirs. Three-quarters of the respondents said they thought breaking the notes into sections was a good idea. (The other quarter was split evenly between those who had no opinion and those who preferred to continue to get all years.)

Our technical experts are creating a password-protected section of the Web site to allow everyone in the alumni database to view the entire ClassNotes section. We do not have a start date, but we hope to be online soon. As many of you told us in the survey, the postman's arrival with the magazine is a reminder to check up on class and school news, but the online notes would be more useful in searching for someone with whom you might have lost touch.

For those of you who read the notes very broadly, we can email you a copy of the full ClassNotes until we have the password-protected website. Just email your request to us at alumni.news@gsb.stanford.edu.

Kathleen O'Toole
Editor

From the Editor

Dean's Column

Kathleen O'Toole
Editor