The May-June 1996 issue was the first to be posted online.
Twenty years have passed since Harvard Magazine posted its first full issue online, for May-June 1996, which featured a profile of legendary crew coach Harry Parker. News subjects then included the College’s decision to randomize House assignments for upperclassmen (students previously had applied to specific Houses with their rooming groups), and the impact of the internet on student life. But “news” meant whatever had appeared in print in each bimonthly issue; the website was simply an electronic version of the magazine.
In 2011, a redesigned site showcased online news and multimedia.
Another decade would pass before the magazine began covering news online in earnest, at a time of considerable upheaval at the University, during the controversial tenure of then-President Lawrence Summers. Developments during the following year, culminating in the news of Summers’s resignation, put Harvard Magazine on the map for timely, in-depth online coverage of Harvard news.
The following spring, the magazine covered Commencement 2007 online for the first time. In 2011, the editors launched a new website that placed online news front-and-center.
The clean, modern version of the site that you see now debuted last year, after a period of exhaustive redesign. The online contents include not only breaking news, but in-depth coverage of research, cultural developments and exhibitions, and essays—a full extension of the bimonthly printed contents. This summer, Harvard Magazine released a new, mobile-friendly site for smartphones and tablets—a reading experience fit for the twenty-first century.
