When Cynthia Efinger, Director of Student Activities, noticed that The Megaphone had been letting down its subscribers, she decided to officially discontinue the publication and start over. The Record was born. The Megaphone, which has only been around for six years, has only published one issue over the last two years, despite its promise to its subscribers to put out four to five each school year. Efinger decided to reimburse The Megaphone subscribers, and the rest of the money will be given to the new publication. The Record, headed by Anna Burgess ’09, who will serve as Editor in Chief, and Sarah Boylan ’09, who will be Managing Editor, officially began last week. The magazine will be “an all-inclusive student-life magazine on campus,” said Boylan. Burgess said she is excited to “start from scratch.” Simone Hill ’08, former Editor in Chief of The Megaphone, said that “because the Megaphone was such a new, recent magazine…people didn’t take it seriously, seeing it only as a board position.” “[The Megaphone] really didn’t have a niche on campus,” Hill said. She also acknowledged that part of the difficulty with The Megaphone arose from the fact that the Upper Management had to carry most of the burden with minimal support from other board members. “I have been on the board since my Lower year. I put a lot of effort into it, but it didn’t work out, and obviously I couldn’t run it on my own,” she said. The Record hired several board members in order to ensure that it does not encounter the same difficulties. The final board was picked last Sunday night from an applicant pool of over 50 students. The board is pushing to publish an issue in Fall Term by Parents’ Weekend. During that weekend in October, board members will then attempt to collect donations and advertise for the publication. This first publication will hopefully be followed by two issues in the Winter Term and on in the Spring Term before the board turns over. Burgess said that The Record, unlike The Phillipian, will be “more reflective.” She said, “There is a need for a student-run magazine that focuses on reflective rather than analytical.” In an email to The Phillipian, Boylan wrote, “Because the previous [Megaphone] boards were pretty loose on keeping to their schedules, Anna and I are planning to keep strict deadlines to ensure that each issue comes out on time.” The magazine will feature a Student Life section, with articles about campus events, Fall Term Wellness Week, a FaceAIDS benefit concert and any other major events on campus. The Sports ection will consist of articles about Phillips Academy’s varsity sports, intramural sports and alumni sports competitions at the collegiate or professional level. Other sections include an Arts section, a Music section and a Miscellaneous section. Burgess said “We need a magazine that allows anyone to connect back with the students. Not necessarily like a yearbook, or like The Phillipian. Just the general reflective feeling of how students at Andover are coping with certain things, directly from the students.” Subscriptions for the new publication, which will be available over the summer, cost $30 for on campus and $40 for off-campus subscriptions.
