Gazette ~ A Waste Of Money

By Peter Boshier (VUWSA Publications Officer)

In July of last year, the Vice Chancellor, Dr Taylor convened a meeting of 'interested persons' involved in the Universities prestige publication Gazette.

"The time has come to consider changes in the Publication", he said.

As a result of this meeting, the Students Association Publications team looked into ways of streamlining costs and improving the publication. To this end they produced a 'pilot' edition last year. While it was only a mild departure from the old style Gazette, the University has apparently rejected the 'pilot' style and reverted to the costly, cumbersome and boring old Gazette.

Editing of copy is done by Mr Kim Keane, the University's aging Information Officer, who sends it to Sentinel Press where where a letterpress image is made of copy, and then it is put onto metal plates and offset printed. This process produces a high quality print, but takes two weeks for Sentinel to complete and the average cost for 2,500 copies of an eight page edition is $220. As one of the objects of Gazette is to report on Council meetings, this lengthy deadline defeats a primary purpose. The remaining feature articles are often so lengthy and dull that they are not read.

The Association suggested that a much cheaper and more attractive process could be used by typesetting copy on its IBM composer, then sending it to Sentinel to print offset. In this way a more versatile paper could be produced, using for instance photographs and graphics, and at a much reduced cost of $120. In addition, this would be a useful financial supplement for Salient layout staff, who at present are paid a pittance for their efforts.

There has been no official reaction from the Gazette committee to the student's proposals, though it is rumoured that Dr Taylor, raised his eyebrows at the 'trendy' edition put out last year. Dr Culliford, who is apparently meant to control University Publications, promised to call a meeting of the committee three weeks ago, but not a word has been heard. Gazette as it stands needs to be improved and could be with only a little effort. At present it is an unforgivable waste of money but it seems that the University is unconcerned with such trivialities.