Northeastern University Digital News Room

In a city with Harvard, MIT and Boston University (not to mention what seems like hundreds of other colleges), standing out from the crowd can be a tough act. Founded in 1898, Northeastern University is the new kid in town next to some of the others. But it’s rapidly climbing the ranks, attracting world-class talent both in students and faculty and becoming a destination for research. Its burgeoning international relevance posed a question for the communications department: “How can we better tell our story?”

Northeastern isn’t looking at other colleges and universities — they’re looking past them. Instead of trying to create a great university news department, they want to create a great news department period. So they enlisted Upstatement to help them craft their strategy, workflows, user experience and technology the way the big guys do. We helped the staff find their voice and their look while helping to shape the department and its process.

The site gives the Northeastern staff the tools and flexibility they need to tell great stories, and they’ve been using it to its fullest. The result is a beautiful, next-generation news site that’s fast, fresh and a delight to read.

A special thank you to the highly talented Northeastern photographers, Matthew Modoono and Adam Glanzman, who took all the photos in this post!