Newsletters

The more newsletters I do, the more I enjoy doing them. I’ve gotten really fast at putting together the Alabama Sierran, though a large part of that comes from constantly looking over information that can go into it and having an idea of what I want to put into it before it comes due. I get more and more submissions for this monthly newsletter (now in year three of production). When we started putting this newsletter together, there were a few pieces devoted to local issues, but much of the information was pulled from national sources–or in the very least from other state sources.

Now, the Sierra Club members seem to have really bought into the concept of the state newsletter and submit everything from articles about some controversial project to photos from their outings.

Seems it is about that time of the month again. I’m wrapping up several newsletters this weekend–the Sierra Club newsletter won’t be finished this weekend, but should be close. The newsletter for CGH Insurance is pretty much ready to go and I finished the AIA newsletter early last week. I’ve got to get started on a newsletter for Alzheimer’s of Central Alabama–I’m working on a complete redesign (something I’ve wanted to do for a long time). And then next week, I’m putting together a newsletter for Your Town Alabama. Pretty exciting stuff, particularly since newsletters are my favorite. Oh, and my short informational piece on newsletters (see post below) is being used by the Sierra Club to offer advice to new editors. clubhouse.sierraclub.org/communications/newsletters/ (The site is password protected, but easy to access (they give the password on the site–just a way to keep search engines from tagging the site).

I do lots of newsletters for people and was recently asked to jot down some ideas about newsletter production. These are particularly focused to the Sierra Club–that’s who asked for them, but they should mostly prove useful to anyone writing a newsletter.

Contents: Some things are obvious. Include outings and events, include contact information and include some way for people to join/renew their membership with the Club.

Think Local First: The more local the information, the more of a service to the chapter or group. Providing information about an upcoming rally or an educational article about some environmental policy that directly impacts the local community is great. Providing information about something nationally or internationally significant is less useful. This, of course, depends on the national issue, but readers generally turn to the Chapter newsletter for local information first. Using national information can be useful, particularly for filling gaps, but always think local first.

Think Short: Long articles are hard to read. We print our share of longer articles, but these are often the least read. Sometimes, a long article is critical to fully explain an issue. Sometimes it needs to be cut drastically.

Think Entry Points: Always try to include some type of graphic on most pages. Include as many entry points into the copy as possible. What’s an entry point? Each place on a page that someone’s eye is attracted to is an entry point. Include multiple places on the page–a pull quote, a bold sentence, a heading, a subheading. Try to include logical breaks and avoid long paragraphs. More than 4 sentences is often too long. Sometimes, just adding an extra line of blank space between two paragraphs can provide a good entry point. It can also make the article feel more accessible and readable (it gives someone a logical place to pause, get up and do something else before coming back).

Think White Space: Loads of text on a page means no one will read any of it. Make the newsletter open and airy. Just because we want to conserve paper does not mean that we should try to stuff 8 pages of information into 4 pages. Less is more. Several well-done articles and a good collection of short snippets is much better than twice as many long, boring articles.

Think Positive: Sometimes, particularly under the current administration, all things seem bad. Report on something fun. Talk about a positive happening in the environment. They do exist.

Think Action: People love to feel that they are being empowered to take action. Give them a phone number, give them something to clip out and mail in. People want to help out, but don’t always know how. The job of the newsletter is to tell them how to help and let them do something quickly.

Think Organization: Having the information all organized before starting to put the newsletter together is a huge plus. I place all the copy I get into Microsoft Word (one file with page breaks for articles). I then run spell check and clean up the formatting–removing extra spaces and tabs, removing odd characters, etc. From there, the information goes into my publishing program (QuarkXpress, but hopefully soon to be Adobe InDesign).

Think About a Good Starting Point: Request submissions in Microsoft Word format or jpeg. I don’t particularly like Word, but most people have it and it keeps copy a bit cleaner than email does sometimes (if you’ve ever copied an email submission and had to remove line breaks at the end of each line, you know what I mean). Request jpeg files and make sure that people understand that size does matter and that if it is too small, it will print poorly–better to use no photo than one that looks terrible. (Requesting tif files will wind up eating up your email accounts space and doesn’t provide enough added quality to be worthwhile, I think.)

These are just a few of the things that I try to think about when putting together the Alabama Sierran. Sometimes I am more successful than others. We get lots of positive comments on our newsletter–with several comments coming from people that are no longer able to participate in the outdoor activities of the Club, but who love Alabama and want to do their part to preserve it.

Hope these thoughts help.