Last week's US mail included a sample monthly newsletter for alumni and development professionals. It contained twelve pages of large print about "managing your office," "engaging nontraditional students," and an article about a golf tournament for fundraising. Then I looked at the cost of a subscription:
$185 per year + $27 for "shipping and handling."
That's $212 per year. Divided by the the 12 issues, that comes out to $17.67 per issue. $1.47 a page.
I had several thoughts about this. An advantage of getting a printed newsletter is that you can read it in the bathroom, or in-flight, before they allow you to use electronic devices at 10,000 feet or 10 minutes after take-off (by the way, if your plane hasn't reached 10,000 feet after ten minutes, tighten your seatbelt low and tight across your lap).
And maybe it's wrong-headed to measure the cost in dollars. Maybe I should measure the value to my program - it might be worthwhile. Might.
I don't subscribe to any printed newsletters. I get most of my information online, from professional organizations, listservs, traditional media outlets and other practitioners in higher education. As a member of CASE, I receive Currents magazine.
Before electronic communications, trade newsletters were useful. But I'm not convinced that anything this spare is worth $212 per year. (This newsletter's publisher delivers similar publications to many professions, including the "Death Care" industry - which I guess is sort of a logical counterpart to the "health care" industry - and that publication covers "memorialization and remembrance issues.")
The bottom line, for me, is that a useful newsletter's content ...
- should reflect trends, and must be up to date
- ought to provide -and stimulate - creative thinking and novel approaches
- must give readers information that is not already easily findable online
- will avoid the obvious (my sample newsletter told me that "[t]he Department of Labor forecasts a growing number of baby boomers retiring in the years to come....")
- has individual bylines (who writes it? what is their experience? their point of view?)
As for the sample...You can receive the newsletter electronically. To sign up for that service you just go to....your phone. They have a tollfree number. The editor told me via email that their circulation numbers are proprietary information, due to the competitiveness of the publishing field. The newsletter in question is entering its tenth year, and although a PDF version is available, she said most of their readers prefer hard copy. She didn't respond to my questions about subscription price or that "shipping and handling" factor.
Sounds like they are satisfying the needs of the non-electronic "analog audience," which is probably a viable approach for a few more years. It also explains why there is no mention of technology in the publication, other than "how to use your database."
Do you subscribe to print newsletters? If you do and you find it a worthwhile investment, tell us about the ones you read.
