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Compton Communications"An Internet Communications Agency"
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Articles
David's Diatribes - e-newsletters Do them for the readers or not at allPosted Wednesday, March 26, 2003 David’s Diatribes eNewsletters do them for the readers or not at all What a week. The war is making me crazy. Twelve years ago when I was sitting out Desert storm as the public affairs officer in Ft. McClellan, We watched daily updates on the action but the ground action was over almost before it began. In this war, the updates from reporters embedded with combat units is bringing it home like never before. I must salute the leadership for giving Americans such access. But the war coverage is like watching a soap opera where the plot only move forward a little bit each day. Good to see so many retired generals employed as well. Now to my real topic – e-Newsletters. Last week, I was slated to present on eNewsletters in Little Rock, Arkansas, but was unable to get there after a major snow storm in Denver cancelled 100s of flights. The good news is for Little Rock, that I will have more time to refine some basic ideas about e-newsletters. I have rescheduled for June 20 in Little Rock with my topic being “Smarter eNewsletters.” I went ballistic this week when I saw a message from a senior leader of a group I am working with on newsletters. He said “We can just put PDF copies of the newsletters on the Web site and send an email telling everyone it is posted.” Sound like a logical way to accomplish the task of getting a newsletter out. However, lets look at this from the reader perspective. To get the information the reader must accomplish a number of tasks. First, install Adobe Acrobat if they have not already. This is a tough task for a new user and difficult for even experienced users. Second, download the file. Acrobat files are large and may require long downloads on slow connections. The user then has to find that file on the system. Some browsers open PDF on the fly but not always. And lastly the reader has to try to read an onscreen document that may be zoomed at 65% in multiple column format and on a PC monitor. Thankfully PDF does allow an excellent printed copy. PDF is great a providing record copies and online documents but lousy if you are trying to get in front of your readership. PDF is for the convenience of the newsletter sender agency, not the reader. My diatribe for this month. Links PDF may be your best bet for online newsletter |