July 28, 2005 — The University of Colorado-Boulder has a new Visitor’s Guide.
Unveiled this month, the 54-page annual glossy magazine aims to inform visitors about campus, culture, community and academics concerning the CU campus and Boulder as a whole.
While this may not sound that novel, one aspect of it is. The new publication is printed by Campus Publishers, a company based in North Boulder that is snatching up university publishing contracts all over the country.
“The story basically is not only that we’re located here in Boulder, but that there is this huge growing market of visitors coming to universities all over the country,” explains John Brice, director Creativity Magazine and Ad Age Magazine of Campus publishers.
The company boasts contracts with 15 schools nationwide and currently publishes eight or nine annual magazines. The contracts began with the University of South Florida and extend around the U.S. to campuses including Boise State University, University of Texas, Purdue University, University of Alabama and University of Illinois.
But according to Brice, whose resume includes Creativity Magazine and Ad Age Magazine, this is the first time the company has produced its glossy copy on local soil.
“This is the first publication that we have published in Colorado,” he says. “We’re a partner with (CU); they write it and design it and we are the custom publisher.”
The new CU Visitor’s Guide, out just in time for orientation this week, features extensive photography by CU staffers as well as a centerfold map, abundant local advertisers and facts and information about the area written and endorsed by the institution.
“The universities are dropping the foldout maps (they used to give visitors),” Brice explains. “That’s how this whole idea started.”
The guides will be available around campus at all points of entry, as well as the Boulder Chamber of Commerce, Pearl Street kiosks and hotels like the St. Julian, Quality Inn and University Inn.
“The visitors that come to CU pump 400 million dollars into the local economy,” says Brice. “We basically have created what is called a controlled distribution circulation magazine to that audience.”
Listed on the “Hot Jobs” business area of Yahoo.com, Boulder’s Campus Publishers indeed seem to be a virtually unknown but local growing business. However, the competition is stiff. According to Publisher’s Weekly, 10,000 new publishing companies spawned in 2002, which was a 15 percent increase over the year before.
“This is a brand new market for us,” Brice explains, adding that there are some additional publishing ventures Campus Publishers would like to explore. “We’re primarily a niche publisher to the university market and the additional new products we’re exploring are for the university market.”
Campus Publishers are located at 1455 Yarmouth Avenue, #115, in Boulder. For more information, call 303-544-1198.
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