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Like all the other advice, I've "been there - done that" with
newsletters. My first tech writing job involved working on a newsletter
for the TRW Customer Service Division in Fairfield (NJ). (It's now
extinct!). We ran a black-and-white 4 to 8-page newsletter called
Feedback. This is how it was organized (you can use this as a guide):
Page 1 (Front Page)
Urgent business news (contract signings, mergers,
assignments/re-assignments of high-level executives, etc.).
Page 3
Human interest stories (employees who volunteered, or did exotic things
- such as climbing the Eiger or scuba diving ship wrecks in the
Atlantic, etc.), profiles of "old timers" who retired after 20+ years
with the company, employee profile of the month, employee awards, etc.
Page 4 (Back Page)
We put the "fluff" here: employee anniversaries, births, weddings,
engagements; company announcements for picnics, walk-a-thons, corporate
runs, blood drives, etc.; and related fluff.
In general, pages 1 and 2 is where articles regarding the business or
the "company message" were put. Pages 3-4 (or 4-8 for an 8-page issue)
was were all the more "fluffy" stuff went.
Brian Flaherty
> ----------
> From: Patty Ewy[SMTP:pewy -at- MIDCOM-INC -dot- COM]
> Reply To: Patty Ewy
> Sent: Friday, June 05, 1998 11:06 AM
> To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject: Newsletter guides (thanks)
>
> A huge thanks to everyone with their advice on the newsletter.
>
> There have been several great suggestions (a reader/audience survey,
> getting a better determination of whether it is an EMPLOYEE or a
> COMPANY
> newsletter, and so on) and I will be drafting a request to put these
> things into effect. (Naive as I am, I never dreamed that this would
> be
> such a can of worms for me.)
>
> Thanks again for everyone's help.
>
> Cheers,
>
>
> Patty Ewy
> Marketing Communications
> pewy -at- midcom-inc -dot- com
>http://www.midcom-inc.com
>
>
> &^~~~
> Send commands to listserv -at- listserv -dot- okstate -dot- edu (e.g., SIGNOFF
> TECHWR-L)
> Find contractor info at
>http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/contractors.htm
>
