Community Newsletters
Part 3: Laying Out a Community Newsletter
Editing Content for Size
Once you have designed the format of your community newsletter, and written the articles for an issue, you are ready to begin laying out the issue. While it may seem easier to write articles directly into your format to avoid writing them overly long, or too short, this can actually be a detriment to your newsletters. Articles written for size have a tendency to seem forced. Instead, it is a good idea to set a word range for an article, such as 350-500 words, and then use graphic elements to make the text fit into the space allotted.
If you absolutely cannot fit an article into the allotted space, or it looks cramped even with no graphic elements, then you will need to do some pruning. While it may be tempting to just rip out whole paragraphs of an article to make it fit, this can often lead to disjointed thoughts and missed information. Instead, begin by reading the whole article over. Consider any sentences that can be reworded into fewer words while still retaining the thought behind the sentence. Delete redundant words or sentences. If a statement is made at the beginning of an article, and then repeated at the end, you can probably afford to remove the second without any loss to the article.
Consider removing some stand-alone information from the article (such as statistics, or a list of action steps) and creating a sidebar. This is a separate, smaller article that is linked to the main article. Often, sidebars have shaded backgrounds or a box around them to indicate that they are not just another article.
Using Graphic Elements
While the most important part of your community newsletter is the content, the vehicle that makes sure the content is read is the graphic elements. A graphic element is anything that gives the eye a break from text. It can be a line, shading, pull quotes, white space, clip art, or photos. When designing your newsletter, it is a good idea to use the dollar bill rule. A dollar bill should touch or cover at least one graphic element no matter where it is placed on the page.
One of the most common elements that community newsletters employ is clip art. Clip art is a simple way to illustrate an article, it is cheap, and it can draw the eye to an article. Unfortunately, clip art can also be off-putting to the reader if not used appropriately. Consider wrapping the text around the actual shape of the clip art, and only using one or two images per page. Try to stick with only one style of clip art to give the newsletter a more finished look. Photo objects are a great alternative to clipart. They make the images more personal, and professional. Try one of the photo objects collections from Hemera Technologies: www.hemera.com
While it is important to use graphic elements, you want to be sure that you do not abuse graphic elements. A common example is community newsletters that place lines around everything. The text is in a box, lines separate the columns, and each article is set off by lines-think wire cage. Make sure that your newsletter has room to breathe. It should appear open and friendly to your readers.
Working with photographs
The pictures in community newsletters are often an endless parade of so and so shaking hands with so and so, somebody else standing at a podium, and board members sitting around a table. While these pictures are important, it is not always necessary to print them en-masse in your newsletter. Here are some tips for working with photography in your newsletter.
- Use action shots. Instead of the standard 'grip-and-grin' photos, include the candid shots of people in conversation, or in action. Photos that are more interesting to you are also more interesting to your readers.
- Use only high contrast pictures. Since you are likely going to be photocopying your newsletter, make sure that your pictures won't look like a dark blobby mass by the time the newsletter gets to your residents.
- Plan for black and white. Most community newsletters are printed in black and white, or black and one other color. Plan for this by either shooting pictures in black and white, or de-saturating the color in a photo program.
- Crop down to just the important elements. It is usually not necessary to show the entire picture, with dirty curtains, unmowed lawns, or chewed table legs. Crop your photographs down to show only what you want readers to focus on.
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