On Feb. 16, the student body received an email from the Office of Communications and Marketing announcing the launch of MiddStories, a digital hub for Middlebury news, commentary, features, and multimedia storytelling. The email described MiddStories as “a place to learn the latest news, to consider informed commentary from Middlebury people, and to engage in stories both large and small that will speak to the Middlebury experience.”
Matt Jennings, the editorial director of MiddStories, said that the intention of the platform would be to provide “a place where people can go regularly to be informed, whether they are an internal audience (faculty, staff, students) or an external audience that knows Middlebury well or wants to learn about Middlebury,” in an interview with the Campus.
Apart from providing news about on-campus events and initiatives, MiddStories will highlight specific stories of Middlebury’s internal community or alumni. According to Jennings, these stories will be written by the Office of Communication and Marketing, as well as community members who are willing to reach out with articles or personal essays. Ava Raiser ’28, said that she “would love to see student and alumni stories, as long as there is a diversity of interests and career paths.”
Each Thursday, students will receive a MiddStories newsletter, which will include a few stories that can be found on the website. On the newsletter format, Raiser said that “so many things have newsletters today. In the beginning, I read them. Later on, there are just too many.”
Jennings responded to these concerns, saying that he understands “the email and newsletter fatigue” students face. He said that if the emails do not draw enough attention, MiddStories will develop TikTok videos or Instagram content to engage students. When asked whether MiddStories will have its own social media accounts, Jennings said “Right now, we are using the College’s main accounts to share stories, but it’s an interesting idea, especially Instagram. Possibly. But right now, we’re starting out with the institution’s main accounts.” To interest students, MiddStories aims to “reach out with content that students would gravitate toward,” Jennings said.
Right now, MiddStories imports multiple articles from Middlebury Magazine. Jennings, who is also the editor-in-chief of Middlebury Magazine, said that MiddStories will take inspiration from the magazine. When asked about how repetition would be avoided, Jennings responded: “We can’t just assume that because we publish something in the Middlebury Magazine, everybody has seen it. It’s just expanding the reach of those pieces. It’s trying to maximize the number of eyeballs we get on those stories.”
Talking about MiddStories as an effort of the Office of Communications and Marketing, Nawale Nachula ’28 said that she feels a rupture between the student body and the administration. They have a lot of understanding of technicalities, but not so much of the reality of student life. MiddStories could be a way to open up a nice dialogue between the admin and students in a very honest and creative way.”
Jennings said that it is MiddStories’ goal to bridge the distance between the Administrative staff in Middlebury and the student body. “The hope is that MiddStories will reflect who we are without it feeling institutional. There will be times where there are news stories, for instance, that feel institutional, but we want essays, we want the vignettes that we publish to feel personal to people, and hopefully, when students see content that reflects their personal experience, it will mean more to them,” Jennings said. He referenced the account “Humans of New York,” saying that MiddStories aims to achieve something similar by highlighting the people of Middlebury.
On the relationship between MiddStories and other campus publications, Jennings said, “We’re keeping track of when Middlebury and Middlebury people appear in The New York Times or National Geographic or on a podcast, and so we want to say ‘Hey, here are some places where Middlebury has appeared in other publications.’ It doesn’t have to be our publication in a way. It generates a source of interest and pride when Middlebury is written about in other places, or when a Middlebury person appears somewhere in some places. We would include it on MiddStories, and when you click on it, it would take you to the original source. We don’t feel like we need to have a sense of pride of ownership over that.”
The MiddStories website has over 400 pages right now, including articles written in January 1997. Jennings said that this is because the website will also serve as an archive to older pieces written about Middlebury. The archive is still incomplete, but the aim is to “have easily accessible archives of previously published stories, just because that’s part of the historical record.” This way, students could have easily accessible writings by Middlebury students, as well as pieces written about Middlebury.
Jennings said that MiddStories is still a work in progress. “We will learn as we go along, and we’re going to build features that we maybe didn’t get to in the beginning or didn’t have a technical solution for today, but maybe we will in six months or 12 months. MiddStories will be evolving. If something is not working, we will try something else. And that’s the beauty of it too. It’s always evolving.”
Anyone who has an idea for a story or essay can reach out via email to Matt Jennings or to the official MiddStories email. “Even if someone has a kernel of an idea and they’re not sure whether it’s an essay or a story or maybe a photo essay or maybe a video, reach out and we’re happy to talk to people and work with them on what’s possible.”
