The University's public relations department has seen a vast redesign over the past few years with the addition of E-News, an extensive fact-gathering department that scours media outlets worldwide for mention of people associated with Tufts.
Rather than suggesting a high-tech departure from the conventional role of PR, Associate Director of Public Relations Peggy Hayes said the spin-off from E-News is supporting traditional public relations efforts at Tufts, such as compiling press releases and communicating with local and national reporters.
"E-News really helps us," Hayes said. "We have found that reporters who are looking for sources on a topic will use E-News and come to Tufts [to follow up]." Hayes said the department has received about eight press calls since September that followed directly from articles appearing on E-News.
The PR service, which now provides daily headlines on the Tufts homepage, is one example of a careful new focus on public relations that began four years ago. In 1997, the former Department of Public Relations and Communications split into separate public relations and publications components.
The University hired Cindy Pollard, its current public relations director, to head the newly independent department. According to those who know her, Pollard spares no expense in recruiting worldly staff with experience outside academia - even hiring former vice presidents of New York ad agencies.
"She's got a very aggressive approach and very high standards," Hayes said of her boss. "She sets the bar high for us."
According to Provost Sol Gittleman, the department has been following an upward curve for years. But with the appointment of Pollard, who came from PR positions at AT&T and Sony, and the expansion to the Internet with E-News, PR began "raising the profile" of Tufts in previously unimaginable ways.
"It brought us much more into the attention of the national media," Gittleman said. "The whole [department] is so vastly improved."
Along with Pollard, Assistant Director of Public Relations Pete Sanborn (LA '99) was one of E-News' main architects. The concept originated when he was an intern in the PR department during his senior at year at Tufts. It was, and is, a relatively new concept in the academic world.
"We're way in the forefront," Sanborn said. "Nobody was doing anything like this in higher ed when we started." He added that E-News allowed its users to receive articles by e-mail before even the Boston Globe or Boston Herald had implemented the system on their own web pages.
The system started out before Sanborn had graduated, with a segment of the Tufts website called "Tufts in the News." The feature was introduced at a time when the web was not nearly as ubiquitous as it is now.
Now, however, Sanborn is getting calls from colleges across the country seeking to replicate Tufts' system, which re-launched as E-News nearly two years ago. And while maintaining and updating the page takes about half to three-quarters of his time, it may be filling a void that traditional methods of PR do not cover.
According to Sanborn, prospective students are the second-biggest group to visit E-News, exceeded only by alumni. It's an audience that might not catch most mentions of Tufts in the national media. But many students use the Internet to apply to or get information on prospective schools, and those visiting Tufts online often click to featured E-News articles from the main page.
Boosted by its jump to the Tufts homepage, the E-News audience is growing rapidly. According to Sanborn, there are thousands of digest subscribers - people that elect to receive e-mail notices of E-News articles - and that at any given moment, on any day, there is someone viewing an E-News article.
While the numbers visiting the E-News site may be easy to determine, the effect of the site in attracting prospective students, faculty, and investors - both for research and general donors - is difficult to measure accurately.
Regardless, the cost is in no way prohibitive, as the site relies on word-of-mouth, not advertising, to spread its popularity. The web design and other maintenance costs since E-News was formed have totaled less than $1000.
Along with the entire PR department, Sanborn's focus is carefully considered. He believes that pieces on University-wide research and projects and alumni accomplishments - rather than any of the so-called "big names" that happen to appear on campus - draw readers in again and again. Sanborn said that PR shouldn't be expending its energy on selling the image of the University based on its high-profile visitors.
"The University's perception is not going to change because of a particular speaker," Sanborn said. "What makes this a great University is its research, the quality of its faculty, and the quality of its students. You can't stop a train on a dime."
Recently, these qualities have helped launch Tufts into the news virtually every day. But Sanborn's most important task is not finding mention of the University anywhere he can. Instead, he needs to find stories that reflect on the characteristics of the University and will appeal to his wide audience.
Nor is the PR department looking to simply push the Tufts name into as many papers and television programs as it can. "The goal for us is not coverage at any cost," Hayes said. "We look for press coverage that really focuses in on the identity of the institution."
