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TELLING YOUR STORY WITH NEWSLETTERS The church newsletter is an important part of your total ministry. It helps you nurture and inform the congregation and new members, as well as reach out to others in your community. The newsletter, more than any other piece of communication, lets your neighbors know who you are. It provides the best clue to prospective members of what it would be like to be a part of your church. It is an opportunity to extend your church's preaching and teaching ministry beyond Sunday morning and to reach readers in their homes. The newsletter should:
What To Write Write news! The first article on page one should be the biggest news story in your church since the last issue of your newsletter.
In order to appeal to the largest number of readers, you need to write and edit with them in mind. Think about specific people as you make a list of articles to include in each issue. News from the regional and national bodies of your church, as well as of community events related to church concerns, have a place in your newsletter. Include a calendar of events and a regular column by the pastor. Encourage lay people to share their personal faith stories and reflect on concerns of the congregation. Letters to the editor are opportunities for members to express their opinions. Build community by sharing joys and concerns, including occasions such as births, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, illnesses and deaths. Include accomplishments of members of all ages, and don't limit them to activities within the church. For example, you can recognize students for academic and extracurricular successes. Introduce new members in your newsletter. A paragraph about each person provides conversation starters for coffee hours and help longtime members greet new members. Photos of new members make this even more effective. Include reports from church committees and organizations in your newsletter. Don't print meeting minutes in full. Just summarize the significant actions. Summarize budgets and financial reports, too. Although it is good practice to make full reports available through your church office, most newsletter readers will be best informed if you explain only key expenditures and significant changes in giving or spending patterns. Throughout the year, use your newsletter to explain how financial offerings are used. Provide regular features of interest to youth and children of the church. A picture to color, a comic or a puzzle can entice young members to become church newsletter readers early - a habit they may keep for life. Recipes, poetry or cute sayings used to fill space are best left out. They distract your readers from your real messages. But include meaningful or relevant cartoons and drawings, especially if they're from a church member. How to Write Your newsletter is not the great American novel: it's straightforward communication. Before you begin writing, think about the purpose of each section of your newsletter. Is your goal to inspire? To inform? To invite attendance at an event? Decide what information you must provide to prompt the desired response from your readers, then write as clearly and succinctly as possible. In paragraph one, summarize the most important elements. Subsequent paragraphs expand the details which support the opening. Background, descriptions, additional facts and explanations follow. In each story, rank the paragraphs in order of importance so if cutting is needed, you can start with the last paragraph and move upward. The five "w's" of journalism - who, what, when, where, and why must be present in every story. They are generally packed into the first paragraph or two. The writer must decide which "w" takes precedence for a particular story. Write the announcement of events like an invitation to a party. Is everything included for your readers to prepare for the event? Date, time, and place? How to dress? Who's expected to attend? How to RSVP or make a reservation? How to get there? Keep sentences short. Opening sentences should be 20 to 23 words, and paragraphs 1 to 3 sentences. Don't search for fancy words: Stick with words you use in conversation. Sentences written in active voice will be more interesting than those that are passive. An active sentence structure is subject-verb-object, using as strong an action verb as possible. Sentences that start with "It" or "There" are often a tip-off you've written a passive sentence. Avoid "generic" opening sentences that could be the same for any church's newsletter. Church members read the newsletter because it is from their church, and they are looking for their church's significance in their lives. Each denomination and local congregation has its own language. The richness of these words is preserved and carried forward when they're used and explained. But if used without explanation, they can alienate and confuse. Being cute or cryptic in the newsletter excludes people. If your newsletter requires reading between the lines or knowing what actually happened, you risk offending, confusing and not communicating. Remember, you are using your newsletter to reach out to visitors and other potential members as well as to speak to "insiders." Be sure information is clear to all. Even abbreviations most familiar to your congregation should be written out in first reference in every item in your newsletter. For example, United Methodist Women (UMW) are often disheartened to learn their abbreviation is more often read as United Mine Workers. The accuracy of every piece of information in the newsletter is essential. Being accurate requires double-checking and clarifying information, verifying spelling of names and titles, being sure days of the week match dates. Pay attention to detail. If possible, elicit help in covering and writing stories from other members of the congregation. Give your reporters clear assignments. If you expect to use only three or four paragraphs of a particular story, tell the reporter that. Keep records of the assignment, the story to be covered and the date the assignment is due. Copy Editing is More than Correcting Errors Newsletter copy must be clear, concise and crisp. Delete unnecessary words, and rearrange sentences so they flow smoothly. Be sure all essential information is included. Cut out extraneous details. When editing, look for overuse of adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases. These dilute the impact of action verbs and too often are used in place of strong verbs. William Zinsser in "On Writing Well" suggests a bracketing technique. When reading copy, bracket any words that seem unnecessary. Then read the sentence without those words. If it makes sense, cut the bracketed words. When possible, prepare your copy and make suggestions to yourself in the margins. Then go back to it a day later to see if your suggestions still look good. Size, Paper, Ink and Type Designing your newsletter requires more organizational than artistic skill. The first step is to determine the newsletter's size and shape, then the width of the columns and margins. No one size of paper is better than another. You may want to experiment to see what your readers prefer. Use a standard size that is available from your supplier to save money. Common alternatives include 8.5" x 11" (letter size) and 8.5" x 14" (legal size). Some churches use these full size, while others fold them in half for a booklet format. You may also want to look into using 11" x 17" paper, which folds down to letter-size pages and can mean fewer printing or copying runs. This may save on printing costs and is a more cohesive unit than single pages stapled together. Make sure the size you use meets Postal regulations. Use white paper, or another light color, and make sure your paper has a hard surface - no lint. Use black ink. If your budget allows, use a second color for highlights. Preprinting your newsletter's nameplate in two colors can give your publication a design edge without the cost of a second color each issue. Next, choose the type. Limit the number of type styles to one or two. A serif type and size is most readable for body copy. Use bold face for emphasis. Save italics for photo captions. You may use a sans serif type face for headlines. These should be at least two point sizes larger than the body copy. Use the same style throughout your newsletter for the body copy. Don't use all italic or all capital type for body copy; both are difficult to read in quantity. Use type large enough for easy reading. Column, Margin, and Gutter Widths The number of columns depends on the type and paper sizes you use. Optimum column width is 39 characters. How many inches that equals depends on the size and style of your type. Use a single width throughout your newsletter, with perhaps the exception of your pastor's column, which can be set wider if it doesn't run too long. Leave the columns with a ragged right margin - it improves readability. Decide how wide to make margins and the spaces between columns, which are called "gutters." Generous margins increase readability. Gutters shouldn't exceed a quarter inch, and margins should be three or four times wider than gutters. Margins and gutters are planned, and are not just whatever space happens to be left over. Folding and Mailing Label Placement Determine how the paper will fold for mail delivery and place the area for the mailing label and return address in the correct spot, usually the bottom of the back page. Now you are ready to fill in the other pages. Good Editing is a Matter of Organization Before you begin your layout, organize your copy by putting similar items together. Here are some groupings to consider:
Use these categories as section headings and/or page designators to help readers find information they are looking for. The Front Page Readers are captured or lost by their reaction to the front page, so its appearance and content are critical. Put the biggest news on page one. The front page should have at least two, and preferably more, big news items, not just one long story. It may include a photo or bulletin paragraphs which draw the reader's attention: e.g., St. John's Wins Basketball Title; see page 3. It should also contain an invitation or announcement of an important upcoming event. A list of future sermon topics is a possibility, but the pastor's column, with its "editorial" style, belongs on a later page. Page one is laid out somewhat differently than the others. It always contains the nameplate, which includes the name of the newsletter, date and issue number, and often the address and phone number of the church, as well as some graphic design. If the address and phone number are not part of the nameplate, put them in the masthead, a small block reserved for this type of information on page two. Put the name and phone number of the editor and the pastor in the masthead. The nameplate tells the reader who is responsible for the newsletter and where to begin to read. Put it at the top of the page. The first page usually has the largest headlines. To fit a variety of stories on page one, you might have to continue one or more articles on a succeeding page. But try to keep each story confined to one page. The Pastor's Column The pastor's column, and any other inspirational items, should be in the same place in each issue. Your reader's need to be able to find this copy in the same place each time. Page two or the back page are possible spots to consider. Regular Features Consider the grouping or subject headings you have selected. Some of these will be regular features such as youth activities, letters to the editor, and the calendar of events. Place them in the same general location in the paper each time. A special feature story might be given prominence on page three, or perhaps this will be the area for conference or national church news. Page Design Decide which item on each page is most important. Lay out the page with the most important item as your focal point. This assures that your readers' eyes will go to that item first. You can do this by using a photo or illustration with the copy, using a larger headline, or putting the item at the top of the page. Photos and art work always grab your readers' attention more quickly than copy. Use these sparingly and large enough for easy recognition. One photo or drawing or a group of either is probably enough on each page. Make photos original. As a rule, the greater the number of persons in the photo, the larger it should be. Faces in a group shot shouldn't be smaller than the tip of your little finger. Headlines are a key part of your design. They are your readers' road signs to what is coming and where to go next. The more complete they are, the more effective they will be. A headline works best when it uses a noun and a verb, rather then a label. A few label headlines on regular columns are okay. Headlines should be flush left and set larger or bolder than your body copy. Your calendar of events is most effective when designed in a grid format,because that is what your reader is used to seeing. Including events on a calendar does not replace the need for narrative copy explaining events and inviting participation. Communication will be most effective when you do both. White space (places in your newsletter where there's no copy) should be pushed to the outside. When trapped in the middle of a page, white space calls attention to itself. When pushed outside, it pulls readers into copy. How Often Should You Publish? How often does your church make news? Are there lots of events and membership activities in your church? Does the pastor have something significant to share each week? Are there sufficient volunteers to gather news and distribute the newsletter more often than once a month? Size and frequency of publication are intimately linked. Any newsletter that requires more than five to ten minutes of reading cover to cover is probably too long. Readers are more likely to consume the same amount of copy in two shorter installments than in one long one. Just as important as how often you publish is setting a publication schedule and sticking to it, so readers can count on timely newsletters. Newsletters that come out less than monthly tend to be too infrequent for timely coverage of events. Communicate deadlines to readers in each issue. Explain how and when to submit information. Leaving out information not received by your deadline may be harsh, but it is the only way to ensure copy arrives on time in the future. Mailing Lists: Members and More Consider your audience. Include eight groups of people on your church newsletter mailing list. 1. Members and active participants in your congregation
2. Seasonal and former members 3. Visitors 4. Community leaders 5. Real-estate agents, builders and developers 6. Homes and congregate living centers in the area 7. Religious editors at area media outlets 8. Exchange newsletters with other churches in your area As you add non-members to your mailing list, let them know why they are receiving your newsletter. A cover letter should be sent with the first issue. Similar letters every six months or so are a good idea, as personnel may change.
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