Open Forum

We have produced a quarterly newsletter in paper form for several years.  We are considering moving to electronic (wordpress since that is what our new website will be based on).  I'd like feedback on your experiences of electronic vs. paper newsletters, and also if you produce both (to cover the members who don't have internet or prefer paper) How do you do it? For  example Wordpress is great for mobile, but not so great for printing, pdf is great for printing, but pretty terrible on a mobile device.  Thanks!

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John Jenkins
President & CEO
SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention
Bellingham WA
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Have you thought about using MailChimp?  It's really easy to use, and is free is you have less than 2,000 members.  it looks good on computer screen and mobile, and there is a print as a PDF option for readers (if I remember correctly).  You can set up a template that you can reuse and adapt for each newsletter.

I'm sure there are other services similar to MailChimp but this is the one I have experience of using. 

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Dana Andrew
Museum & Gallery Consultant
Southampton

Original Message:
Sent: 12-18-2016 11:29 AM
From: John Jenkins
Subject: Newsletter - Electronic vs paper

We have produced a quarterly newsletter in paper form for several years.  We are considering moving to electronic (wordpress since that is what our new website will be based on).  I'd like feedback on your experiences of electronic vs. paper newsletters, and also if you produce both (to cover the members who don't have internet or prefer paper) How do you do it? For  example Wordpress is great for mobile, but not so great for printing, pdf is great for printing, but pretty terrible on a mobile device.  Thanks!

------------------------------
John Jenkins
President & CEO
SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention
Bellingham WA
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As Dana mentioned, there are many online services to handle email marketing and newsletters like Mailchimp.  Many of these are free, or very low cost, and most of them also offer analytics so that you can see who is opening your newsletters, and what links they are clicking on so that you can get a better sense of their interests.  Electronically you can also do more types of media, like video and audio that you would not be able to do in a traditional format.

If you are planning to provide print copies by request or limited just make sure to find a good html template and test it for print to make sure it looks the way you want it to before you send it out.  Although most templates have features that help optimize them for various uses as well as for being seen in different types of browsers, or mobile devices, you want to make sure you test them as much as possible before you send them out to your readers.

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Michael Mackay
Manager, Sales & Marketing
Spongelab Interactive
Toronto ON

Original Message:
Sent: 12-18-2016 11:29 AM
From: John Jenkins
Subject: Newsletter - Electronic vs paper

We have produced a quarterly newsletter in paper form for several years.  We are considering moving to electronic (wordpress since that is what our new website will be based on).  I'd like feedback on your experiences of electronic vs. paper newsletters, and also if you produce both (to cover the members who don't have internet or prefer paper) How do you do it? For  example Wordpress is great for mobile, but not so great for printing, pdf is great for printing, but pretty terrible on a mobile device.  Thanks!

------------------------------
John Jenkins
President & CEO
SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention
Bellingham WA
------------------------------

I'd like to hear anyone's input on this subject as well. We are just getting a newsletter started, and will be using EMMA for the electronic version, since we already use it for email. However, it's not convenient for printing, and we are trying to decide if we want to print a hard copy to send to members. I'd like to know what people use to create an affordable, printable design. Thanks!

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Samantha Roberts
Events, Membership, Visitor Services Coordinator
Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts
Atlanta GA

Original Message:
Sent: 12-18-2016 11:29 AM
From: John Jenkins
Subject: Newsletter - Electronic vs paper

We have produced a quarterly newsletter in paper form for several years.  We are considering moving to electronic (wordpress since that is what our new website will be based on).  I'd like feedback on your experiences of electronic vs. paper newsletters, and also if you produce both (to cover the members who don't have internet or prefer paper) How do you do it? For  example Wordpress is great for mobile, but not so great for printing, pdf is great for printing, but pretty terrible on a mobile device.  Thanks!

------------------------------
John Jenkins
President & CEO
SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention
Bellingham WA
------------------------------

Often times it is better to think of your print media and your online media as two different things.  Different people will be interacting with each type of newsletter.  Generally the people that are reading your e-newsletter are not the same people that are reading your print newsletter and each unique audience is going to prefer different types of content.

For instance, your e-newsletter may be getting mostly opened on mobile devices, so it may be better suited to showing short video or audio clips, graphics and animations that people can consume quickly on the go.  Whereas a print newsletter is likely going to be more copy heavy as anyone who is interested in it, is likely going to sit and take some time to read through your articles.

Just a few things to keep in mind.

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Michael Mackay
Manager, Sales & Marketing
Spongelab Interactive
Toronto ON

Original Message:
Sent: 12-19-2016 03:56 PM
From: Samantha Roberts
Subject: Newsletter - Electronic vs paper

I'd like to hear anyone's input on this subject as well. We are just getting a newsletter started, and will be using EMMA for the electronic version, since we already use it for email. However, it's not convenient for printing, and we are trying to decide if we want to print a hard copy to send to members. I'd like to know what people use to create an affordable, printable design. Thanks!

------------------------------
Samantha Roberts
Events, Membership, Visitor Services Coordinator
Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts
Atlanta GA

Original Message:
Sent: 12-18-2016 11:29 AM
From: John Jenkins
Subject: Newsletter - Electronic vs paper

We have produced a quarterly newsletter in paper form for several years.  We are considering moving to electronic (wordpress since that is what our new website will be based on).  I'd like feedback on your experiences of electronic vs. paper newsletters, and also if you produce both (to cover the members who don't have internet or prefer paper) How do you do it? For  example Wordpress is great for mobile, but not so great for printing, pdf is great for printing, but pretty terrible on a mobile device.  Thanks!

------------------------------
John Jenkins
President & CEO
SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention
Bellingham WA
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