CMU women make national news
For decades, while experts decried the lack of women in high-tech fields, Carnegie Mellon University was doing something about it: cultivating a culture where women thrive, building a pipeline and making inclusion a priority. The payoff came in 2017, when women made up the majority of first-year undergraduates at 51 percent. This achievement came one year after the percentage of women enrolled in the undergraduate computer science and engineering classes reached record highs, setting CMU apart from its peers.
University Communications & Marketing wanted to make sure the nation heard this story. Working closely with partners across campus, UCM built a rich web package that included stories, video interviews, photos, infographics, Q&As and more. Armed with data, the human voices and the storytelling that brought it all together, we pitched the news to national media outlets.
The carefully orchestrated campaign got this story the attention it deserved, starting with a two-story package in the Washington Post. Ultimately, the story earned rare, in-depth coverage from 39 major news outlets across the nation with a reach of 137 million readers.
Success by the numbers
51
media placements
161 million
media impressions
10,087
cmu.edu/news story views
9.1 million
social media impressions
3,390
posts across social media