Newsletters

With so much attention given to newspapers, magazines, and the electronic media it's easy to overlook subscription newsletters. Newsletters, after all, aren't at your local newsstand, rarely carry advertising, and often have circulations of less than several thousand readers.

In the context of media outlets reaching millions of people, newsletters seem unimportant -- at least to the unwary. Yet it's a mistake to view newsletters lightly. Newsletters are significant, not because they reach a huge audience (although some letters have six-figure subscription levels), but because they're often the fastest and most effective way to reach selected readership groups.

Newsletters rarely carry ads. Editorial copy -- usually four-to-eight tightly-written pages -- doesn't compete with advertising for reader attention or time, and the physical size and concentrated content of subscription newsletters creates an unique news product. Items appearing in newsletters are read if only because there are few distractions. Similar material in a big-city newspaper or major magazine may be buried and unnoticed amid 100 pages of editorial clutter.

What makes subscription newsletters important is that such publications must have clear editorial merit to survive. A newsletter that publishes material from last week's paper can be described in one word: Defunct.

Not only must newsletters be fresh and original, they must offer one or more additional values as well.

• Specialization. By providing information not typically or fully carried by papers and magazines, newsletters are a preferred channel of information, sometimes the only channel, for certain industries, professions and groups. A court suit involving an environmental issue, for example, may not make the papers generally, even though it is important to certain business interests and environmental organizations. Newsletters serving such fields will fully report the suit and its implications.

• Advanced information. Newsletters often lure readers with coverage found elsewhere, but found later. The benefit to readers is that by having advanced information, they're able to anticipate trends. If you know the Jones Company has made progress with an anti-cancer drug, that's important for competitors, stock analysts, physicians, pharmacists and patients.

• Expertise. Subscription newsletters are typically written by reporters with extensive training and experience who cover a single subject. Between their background, concentration and contacts, such writers are authorities within given fields. Moreover, because they're journalists, they have access to information and people who would not normally be available to competitors in a particular area.

• Need. You won't find too much in the local paper, but if you want to vacation on a freighter, there's a monthly newsletter on the subject. Often a topic is so specialized that the potential universe of readers could not justify newspaper or magazine support, so newsletters -- with their low production costs and ability to specialize -- are perfect vehicles to reach small groups such as those who want to follow injection molding trends, learn more about intellectual property decisions or keep up with the potato industry.

• Exclusivity. A key feature offered or implied by many newsletters is an "inside" perspective, information that will immediately and instantaneous put you at the center of a given field or activity. What's going on, how to save, who to contact, what to expect -- all rendered with detail and clarity -- are the mainstays of many letters.

Contacting a newsletter requires nothing more than finding appropriate letters in various directories and then sending a brief letter and background materials to the editor or publisher.

But if contacting newsletters is easy, getting coverage is tough. Newsletters have little space and what they use must not only interest their readers, it must also appear in print before it reaches the general media. Relative to the space available, there's tremendous competition for coverage. Thus, promoters are most likely to succeed if they package materials individually for each newsletter and provide such information for publication before approaching the general media.

Peter G. Miller is an image, marketing, and public relations consultant whose clients include selected national corporations, associations, and web sites. Mr. Miller can be reached at peter@boardroomarts.com