Walters

Karen Walters has been named assistant director of the Cornell Chronicle, effective July 1, it was announced last week by Tommy Bruce, vice president for university communications.

Walters, who will report to David Brand, director of the Cornell Chronicle, will retain her position as editor of Chronicle Online, which she established two years ago as Cornell University's daily news source, with the look and feel of a newspaper. Today, Chronicle Online regularly records more than 1.5 million hits (files served) a week, a tripling of traffic over two years.

"Karen has done a tremendous job in making Chronicle Online a major university news outlet," said Bruce. "Her commitment, energies and talent are a great asset to University Communications. I heartily congratulate her on this well-deserved promotion."

A year ago Walters developed a weekly e-letter for Cornell Trustees, which she followed with a monthly e-News for alumni and parents, which last month went to 155,000 addresses. She also manages the Chronicle's daily e-mail lists and RSS feeds.

In her new position she will help supervise the weekly Cornell Chronicle and copy edit all Chronicle stories and the Chronicle Magazine. She will also be responsible for shepherding new technical developments at the Chronicle.

Walters came to Cornell in 1984 as a receptionist in the Cornell News Bureau, answering phones, greeting visitors and assisting with mailings. She was quickly promoted to production coordinator in the bureau, copy editing news releases, among other duties. In 1985 she became an administrative assistant for University Relations, returning to the news bureau, by then called Cornell News Service, in 1986 as office manager.

In 1990 Walters became an editorial assistant on the Cornell Chronicle, editing and paginating the Chronicle, taking the paper from paste-up to digital layouts using PageMaker. She was also responsible for posting stories weekly to the Chronicle's Web pages, producing the newspaper's Calendar section, as well as maintaining a photo database and filing system.