What our staff say about Linkage
Linkage has been around for 200 issues. In order to understand our readers better, we invited colleagues to complete a readers' survey to tell us what they think about Linkage and how to make further improvements. A total of 44 staff gave us feedback and suggestions, which we really appreciate.
- "Linkage is a high-quality and informative publication for staff from all sectors."
- -"Excellent and professional presentations both in content and design."
- "Comprehensive and impressive; a good communication tool between staff.."
- "A must-read newsletter; I always read it from cover to cover."
The above are some commendations we received from colleagues. The top three most popular sections in Linkage according to the survey respondents are: Campus Events, Focus/Cover Story and the Bilingual Pages (including Ace Teams" , "My Favourite Bookmarks", Meeting Reports, "CityMart" and "CityU Brain Teaser".)
A number of respondents said that they would like to have a Letters to the Editor column for staff to express views and opinions. They also hoped more departments would write to review their latest developments or office renovations. Others said they would like to see more staff profiles and urged more staff to contribute articles telling their own stories--not just their work at CityU but also their personal interests and experiences. In addition, colleagues were also interested in reading stories on themes relating to staff benefits issues and the management's views on the University's development, or hot topics in town.
Most of the respondents were satisfied about the design and publication frequency of Linkage and believe that it serves as an effective staff newsletter. Among the suggestions provided, it was clear colleagues favour putting Linkage stories on the web and reducing print copies to people requesting them. Indeed, the new CityU Today website (www.cityu.edu.hk/cityutoday/) recently set up by the University Publications Office contains the latest news about the University. Linkage stories are also included in the website's news archive once they have been published.
There were some negative comments, however. Readers complained that Linkage was more a mouthpiece for the administration ("too top to the bottom") than a staff newsletter and suggested we take a more critical and objective stance. More stories about non-academic staff and departments, travel information, as well as adding a bit of humour to the newsletter were also high on the list of recommended improvements.
The editorial team would like to take this opportunity to thank colleagues for their support of Linkage and pledge to put our best efforts into producing each issue. We look forward to celebrating Linkage 300th with you.