Since its start in 1979, the university’s magazine, The Point, has been published in print. This fall the magazine will make the transition from a print format to a new digital format.

Point Park’s Office of Marketing and Communications is in charge of the switch to digital.

“We’ve always had this digital presence,” Cheryl Valyo, the Managing Editor of Marketing Communication said. “It’s certainly the trend in the industry, and the university is following along in those trends.”

According to Valyo, the new digital format will allow for a more robust online magazine, issued twice in the year during the semesters. It also helps the university with its cost efficiency.

The Point’s current features include a range of Point Park stories.

“General news, features, question and answers with faculty and alumni, performing arts, athletics, class notes and alumni updates,” Valyo said. “Those are some of the key categories, and we’re going to continue that.”

Valyo mentioned that the magazine is the only platform that reaches all of Point Park’s desired audience.

“So that [covers] alumni, trustees, Downtown neighbors, parents and prospective students and families,” Valyo said. “Every audience we want to share Point Park stories with.”

Point Park’s website states that The Point reaches approximately 25,000 alumni and friends of the university every year. The magazine is also distributed on campus to students as well.

Since the university’s decision to go digital, the magazine’s staff continuously works on rebuilding the website.

“We’ve been working to rebuild this current site,” Valyo said. “There will no longer be a PDF. It will be a truly online magazine. That involves working with our great web team and enrollment market to rebuild that site, and we’re in the middle of that now.”

Along with rebuilding the website, the team has to stay in contact with alumni to notify them of the digital switch and find out what content people want to read in future issues.

The team putting together the new site consists of Valyo, Managing Director of Marketing and Public Relations Louis Corsaro, staff writers in marketing and communications, enrollment marketing and freelance photographers.

While The Point currently does not have any students working to put together the new digital site, it has included student photography in the past.

Hannah Johnston, 22, and a senior English major at Point Park is one of those student photographers.

“They tell me what events to go to and I go and photograph them,” Johnston said. “For the most part it’s just a side part of my work study position with them. I’m a student photographer and writer for the enrollment and marketing department.”

Johnston said the university is making the switch to digital because the majority of people solely look at the digital version of the magazine already.

Incorporating more students is something Valyo said is a possibility in the future, but the team’s focus is getting the first digital issue out some time around November.

“It’s all going to live as part of the main pointpark.edu website too,” Corsaro said. “For anyone that’s gone online before for stories nothing really changes for them. So, if anyone’s familiar in that way it’ll look pretty much the same.”

Valyo agreed with Corsaro’s assessment of what the changes will mean for the magazine.

“It’ll look different than it does right now, but it’ll live in the same place that it does now,” Valyo said.

DISCLOSURE: Hannah Johnston is the sports photography editor for The Globe.