Striving to offer HBS students a newspaper that matches their cyber-lifestyle, the Harbus is launching a new online edition Monday, February 5. Harbus staff say enlivened design and enhanced interactivity will draw ever more users to the address www.harbus.org.
“The online edition is the primary gateway to the Harbus for many of our students, alumni and prospectives,” said publisher Jim Mutugi, NB. He called the new site “vastly improved in terms of both aesthetics and functionality,” over the site that had existed since 1998. “We are particularly excited about the new ways in which the site will allow students to interact and exchange ideas and opinions with one another.”
In devoting more attention to the paper’s online presence, Harbus Online is competing for “SOE, or share of eyeball,” according to Rick Zednik, NF, the Harbus Online’s managing director. “Between their Course Platform, e-mail and research for interviews and cases, HBS students practically live their lives online. We want the Harbus Online to be part of students’ weekly routine.”
Zednik was quick to point out that the online edition will complement the print edition, not replace it. “It’s a different distribution channel with different advantages, such as keyword archive searches and links to related web sites for further information.”
While the 64-year-old student newspaper has published online since 1998, the new site’s creators say several factors made the timing right for a total revamp.
Last fall, Harbus Online editors Masi Denison, OC, and Julia Davies, OH, felt the need to not only improve the site’s design but also simplify its maintenance. Their research led them to a young Boston-based company called College Publisher.
“Redesigning the Harbus Online site has always been a project near and dear to our hearts,” Denison said. “The critical factor was finding the technology resources to implement the changes we wanted to make. The College Publisher solution allows Harbus to have a sophisticated technological solution without being dependent on finding a current HBS student with advanced computer programming abilities.”
