Equipment And Resources

Again, equipment and resources needed are likely to be much fewer with newsletter production. You will find it easier to produce if you have a computer; this will also help you manage your database of readers and – if relevant – advertisers. If you are considering very small-scale production, a photocopier may be adequate for producing copies for your readers, otherwise you will need the services of a suitable printer.

Selecting And Organising Topics And Items

For a newsletter, this is likely to be a straightforward task. Newsletters should be clearly focussed on their field of activity and, therefore, topics and items are often self-selecting.

Newsletters carry NEWS, so this should be your main concern. What counts as news will vary from one publication to another, but generally your items should be informative, topical, relevant to most of your readership and within the time-frame of your publishing schedule – there is nothing worse than news that arrives too late to be of use – particularly information on events that have already occurred by the time the newsletter reaches its readers.

Most items will need to be quite short in a newsletter – whereas a magazine article is often upwards of a thousand words, and may be several thousand, very long items would be out of place in a newsletter. On the whole, if you can keep your items to under five hundred words, this works well in most newsletters. You can have an occasional longer item, but this will restrict the space you have available for other things.

Good items for newsletters are:

• news relating to your area
• events listings
• letters about relevant topics
• information on useful products and services and links to useful websites
• reports on activities carried out by people in your readership group
• networking information
• ‘snippets’ and ‘fillers’
• advertisements

Getting Contributions

With newsletters, this is generally straightforward – your most likely contributors are:

• yourself
• others in your ‘community’ of readers
• people wishing to contact others in your community

 

Once you have established your likely readers, these are the ones to approach with requests for contributions. Apart from this, do follow the suggestions in Chapter 7, ‘Getting Contributions’ – as many of the same principles apply.

Writing And Interviewing Skills

Much of this is the same as for magazine production, but with newsletters, writing generally needs to be more focussed, ‘snappier’ and more concise. It is useful to look at a range of other newsletters before you start yours, so you can get a feel for the kind of writing styles they have, and an Internet search is useful in this context.

Proof-Reading

Exactly the same advice applies to newsletters as to magazines – make sure you do proof-reading effectively in order to produce a quality publication.

Advertising And Sponsorship

Again, similar principles apply to advertising as to magazines, and sponsorship may be easier to get for a newsletter than for a magazine. Certainly with ‘local’ newsletters, such as village newsletters or club newsletters, you may find sponsors in some of your readers, local businesses, relevant suppliers, and so on.

Often an individual or a business will sponsor a whole edition of a newsletter – for example, covering the cost of printing or distribution, or you may have sponsors for each of these activities for a whole year. Sponsorship may also take the form of assistance, such as providing help with putting newsletters into envelopes, putting them through letterboxes or giving materials such as envelopes or photocopying facilities.

Advertising may be more difficult with a newsletter, because many newsletters have only a limited circulation, but it is possible to attract advertising if you are operating within a ‘niche’ market or in a local area that particular advertisers wish to target.

Guidance To Contributors And Advertisers

Again, this is similar to guidance to magazine contributors and advertisers, but on a smaller scale. You may have to be stricter with copy deadlines with a newsletter, as newsletters often come out more frequently than magazines, giving less time for the collation of editorial and advertising elements.