December 2005

A Letter to MIT Alumni

By Jason Pontin

Dear MIT alumnus or alumna,

Technology Review was founded in 1899 and is published by Technology Review Inc., an independent enterprise owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One of our responsibilities is publishing MIT News, the alumni magazine of the Institute. We also publish an edition of Technology Review that does not include MIT News, for an international audience of paying subscribers -- mainly, senior executives, researchers, financiers, and policymakers.

MIT News describes campus life and presents alumni news for the MIT diaspora, but it also includes communications from the Alumni Association, as well as Course News and Class Notes. The mission of the non-MIT pages of Technology Review is unique among alumni magazines: for 106 years we have described emerging technologies and analyzed their commercial, economic, social, and political impact. In fulfilling this mission, we champion MIT's vital interests: the development of innovative technologies and the discovery of new science. But our print magazine and our website will be changing. This letter is to advise you, the MIT alumni, of those changes.

Readers, and the advertisers who have for years subsidized the creation of editorial products, are spending more and more time and money on the Web. Readers want information to be immediate, searchable, and easily customized, and advertisers are demanding accountability from the publishers who take their money.

In keeping with MIT's history of innovation and leadership, Technology Review has decided to invest more of its resources in interactive media. We do not believe, as some have opined, that "print is dead"; there are many things that print magazines do better than more interactive media. But we are sure that we must offer our readers and advertisers more products and choices online. We will therefore:

•? Decrease the frequency of the print magazine to bimonthly publication;

•? Focus the print magazine on what print does best: present longer-format, investigative stories and colorful imagery;

•? No longer split Class Notes and Course News into even- and odd-numbered years and courses; henceforth, notes for all classes

and courses will be published in every issue;

•? Dramatically increase the number of stories we publish on technologyreview.com every day;

•? Expand the range of media we employ online to include podcasts, blogs, RSS feeds, and a variety of new technologies;

•? Focus the non-MIT pages of Technology Review on the impact of emerging technologies and discontinue our coverage of the business models and financing of new technologies.

In making these changes, we were guided by Beth Garvin, the vice president of the Alumni Association, by the board of Technology Review, by Dr. Susan Hockfield, the president of MIT -- and by you, the alumni of MIT.

As an MIT alumnus or alumna, you will receive six issues of Technology Review every year. Your next issue will be mailed in early February. In 2006 you will receive issues in March, May, July, September, and November. In 2007 you will receive issues in January, March, May, July, September, and November. You will also have access to our premium content online, including our magazine archives. Even though we are publishing the print magazine half as often, we will publish the same number of pages dedicated to Course News and Class Notes.

Finally, I would urge you all to visit technologyreview.com, and experience in new media the same intelligent, analytical, groundbreaking editorial content you like in Technology Review magazine.

Yours sincerely,

Jason Pontin
Editor-in-chief and publisher
Technology Review