Newsletter


A newsletter is a printed or electronic report having news about the activities of a business or an organization that is sent to its members, customers, employees or other people. Newsletters usually have one main topic of interest to its people. A newsletter may be called grey literature. Electronic newsletters are delivered electronically through e-mail. It can be seen as spamming if e-mail marketing is sent even though the person did not want it.[1][2][3][4]

The newsletter is the usual form of serial publication.[5] About two-thirds of newsletters are internal publications, going towards employees and others. About one-third are external publications, going towards public support or special interest groups.[5]

History

In ancient Rome, newsletters were given between officials or friends.[2] By the Middle Ages, they were given between merchant families.[2] Trader's newsletters went over many topics such as the pricing of goods, political news, and other things that would change trade.[2] These commercial newsletters were in motion, the first "serious" outlet for news publishing, from which made newspapers.[2]

The first full "newspaper" was Relation of Strasbourg, printed in 1609 by Johann Carolus. Many rivals soon came, such as the German Avisa Relation oder Zeitung. The Dutch Nieuwe Tijdingen was also a rival.[2] By the end of the 17th century, many newspapers were made all across Europe, and were sometimes translated into other languages.[2] By the late 17th century, many governments were censoring newspapers.[2] That harmed their development.[2] Wars, like the Thirty Years' War, also imposed restrictions on trade, which could lead to shortage of paper in addition to censorship.[2]

Government censorship remains in effect in several countries to this day, although several countries now have laws guaranteeing freedom of the press.

Modern newsletters

Modern newsletters are usually made and shared electronically by companies, organizations or other people.

Newsletter marketing is a type of direct-to-consumer advertising. This is used by companies that want to send information to long-time customers.[6] When received when they are not asked for, they can be seen as spam.

Newsletters are also used by organizations to tell their members about things that are going on.[7]

Writing and sharing personal newsletters by people can be seen since the late 2010s in the coming of social networking services.

Production

Many paper newsletters are letter-size pamphlets. Some are made of side-or corner-stapled letter-size paper, sometimes of saddle-stitched (stapled) tabloid paper.

Before the early 20th century, newsletters were usually made by letterpress. The growth of spirit duplicators and mimeograph machines in the early 20th century made short-run copies better. In the 1960s, xerographic photocopying became found all the time.

Related pages

References

  1. newsletter (British English, American English): Cambridge English Dictionary, retrieved on 2017-05-18.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 "History of publishing - the first newspapers". Britannica. 
  3. Endres, Kathleen L. (2009). "Newsletters, Newspapers, Pamphlets". Journalism and Mass Communication, Volume 1. Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems. UNESCO. pp. 90–104. ISBN 978-1-905839-71-1.
  4. Best Practices for Developing Effective E-Newsletter Content Archived 2018-01-28 at the Wayback Machine on the website of the University of Washington, retrieved on 2018-05-09.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Smith, Ronald D. (2004-09-15). Strategic Planning for Public Relations. Routledge. ISBN 9781135606077.
  6. "What is newsletter marketing and why it's important for ecommerce".
  7. "Editorial Policies for Organizational Newsletters".

More reading

  • Arth, Marvin; Ashmore, Helen; Floyd, Elaine (November 1995). The Newsletter Editor's Desk Book. Newsletter Resources. ISBN 9780963022226.
  • Brooks, Rose Marie; Clack, Melissa; et al. (1972). The Standard Directory of Newsletters. Oxbridge Publishing Company. ISBN 9780911086072.