College Avenue magazine gets a new look (JTC 326 Individual Reporting Project)

The CSU student-run College Avenue magazine reveals a new look, improving marketing, distribution and recognition.

Out of habit, you go to pick up The Rocky Mountain Collegian newspaper on your way to class, but tucked inside is something new, a magazine called College Avenue. And somewhere in your mind the name might ring a bell.

Few might know, the publication, produced by Colorado State University students, has officially been around since 2005, but this year, now in its second issue, it has been revamped and redesigned.

What once had a glossy cover, was published three times a year, and distributed by itself in racks around campus, now prints on tabloid-size, high-quality newsprint, publishes monthly and is distributed in the Collegian. The magazine also added elements to their logo, redesigned their cover, increased their ad to content ratio and redesigned their website.

College Avenue Editor-in-Chief Kristin Hall works on the magazine's third issue of the year. Hall, along with the help of editors and advisors, helped solve College Avenue's advertising, distribution and branding problems by increasing ad content to make the publication self-sufficient, inserting it into the Collegian monthly to increase circulation and adding design elements to the logo and cover to make it more recognizable. Photo by Ricki Watkins.

The changes to the publication, which is owned by Rocky Mountain Student Media Corporation, were made in effort to increase readership by making the magazine easier to access and branding it for easy recognition, as well as to become a self-sustaining medium.

“When we were looking at the magazine product as a whole, as its been over the 7 years of its life,” student media newsroom advisor Mike Humphrey said, “we were realizing that we were doing a good product, but we weren’t exciting the community and the advertising base enough.”

College Avenue has already seen an increase in readership and recognition, especially online, which has seen a tripling in web traffic.

College Avenue staff worked to redesign the magazine's online site over the 2012 summer; web traffic has tripled since then. Photo by Ricki Watkins.

“We have seen a huge spike in interest from what we have seen in the past,” Kristin Hall, editor-in-chief said. “I just hope that what we have done this year will set it up for success over and over again in the future.

The changes this year have not been the only ones through the magazine’s life, the publication has evolved and changed through the years, while still maintaining its original logo and folio design and dedication to well written content.

“I think its really been a natural progression and I think the best part about how it’s progressed is that its all come from the students,” former magazine advisor Jenny Fischer said.

College Avenue Editor-in-Chief Kristin Hall works from her desk in the Colorado State University student media room, with the covers of past College Avenue issues hanging on the wall as inspiration. Photo by Ricki Watkins.

Past College Avenue covers serve as a memory of the start and transformation of the magazine since its beginnings in 2005. Photo by Ricki Watkins.

College Avenue Editor-in-Chief Kristin Hall types, working on the third issue of the 2012-13 volume.  Photo by Ricki Watkins.

History of College Avenue. Infographic by Ricki Watkins.