Boulder Firm Puts Out the Word on University of Colorado

Jul. 19–A first-of-its-kind University of Colorado visitor’s guide is available now for pickup at various locations around Boulder.

The guide features CU campus facilities, with a little bit of history and information on housing, recreation and cultural activities. Other sections tell about the university’s “excellence” and admissions process.

The 54-page glossy guide was designed and written by CU’s Department of University Communications and published by Campus Publishers, a Boulder-based national publishing company.

“We try to promote the university as much as possible,” said Kevin Lee, associate director of the Department of University Communications. “It is another tool to sell the campus, and we have a lot to offer.”

The guide mostly covers what an orientation campus tour normally would, Lee said.

The targeted audiences are parents and potential students from out of state and anyone who wants to learn more about CU and Boulder, he said.

“For CU, the guide is a welcoming tool to its visitors,” said John Brice, president and owner of Campus Publishers. “For us, it is a chance to emerge as a national company in Boulder, for a first time publishing something locally.”

The CU guide is the first publication the company has published in Colorado.

Brice has 26 years of experience in advertising and publishing. The family-operated business contracts with universities from all over the country for producing customized visitor’s guides and telephone directories.

Campus Publishers employs 10 full-time workers, plus five to 10 students from CU at any given time, said Jill Nagel, who oversees contract development for Campus Publishers and also is Brice’s wife.

The company has eight contracts with universities for visitor’s guides, including Purdue University, Florida State University and the University of Illinois at Chicago, as well as seven others with various schools for phone directories. The business is about to add three more contracts for visitor’s guides within the next month, Nagel said.

Campus Publishers paid for the CU guide by selling advertising space to local businesses.

Tim Weckerly, owner of Art of the Flower, at 1140 13th St. in Boulder, said he received a postcard notifying him about the planned guide. He decided to have his business exposed there.

“Normally, I do very little advertising,” Weckerly said. But what caught his attention in this case was that the guide was supposed to reach potential students and their parents coming to Boulder.

So far, it’s too early to say if there would be any impact on his business, he said.

“I like the guide, I like how my ad came out, just the way we talked about,” Weckerly said.

The Campus Visitor’s Guide 2005 can be found on the CU campus. It’s also distributed through the Boulder Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau. It also can be picked up at selected hotels and restaurants and at the Pearl Street information kiosk between 13th and 14th streets.

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