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Book Review

A Manager's Guide to Newsletters:
Communicating for Results
By Robert F. Abbott
Word Engines Press; Airdire, Alberta; 2001
Paperback, 209 pages, $29.95 U.S. ($39.95 Canada)
Reviewed by David M. Freedman


A Manager's Guide to Newsletters focuses on management issues that people in large organizations would be concerned with, but many of the principles and applications are relevant to organizations of all sizes. Although the intended audience is at the professional level, the writing style is at the college textbook level; experienced journalists or marketing professionals might find it too elementary. As an indication of its level of sophistication, the glossary at the back defines words such as editor, persuasion, and tasks.

On the other hand, some experienced communications managers will do well to review the fundamentals presented in several of the chapters, especially those on establishing marketing objectives, using editorial boards, media relations, generating article ideas, and assessing performance.

Author Bob Abbott is the founder and owner of The Newsletter Company, which has served clients in the Calgary (Canada) area since 1991. He also publishes the weekly Abbott's Communication Letter, which he distributes free by e-mail.

Case studies
Abbott employs an interesting technique for providing examples of the principles he enunciates in the book. Before Chapter 1, he reproduces (with permission) three different publications in their entirety: a marketing newsletter, an employee newsletter, and a membership newsletter. Throughout the book he refers back to various aspects of those three publications to illustrate his points.

He does an excellent job of emphasizing the fundamentals that even some veteran marketers might overlook. For example:

• Is a newsletter the right medium for your purposes?
• Can you express your objectives in terms of reader response?
• How will you learn about, understand, and meet reader needs?

Abbott points out that your newsletter must measurably influence the readers' behavior, belief, or attitude before it can be considered worth your while.

The challenge of the editor, he writes, is to select content that "does two things at the same time: It influences the ways readers think or act, and it provides information that readers find helpful or interesting" -- and I would add entertaining. "Is it possible to do both...at the same time? Yes!"

Leveraging your newsletter
The chapter on media relations is very good. The benefits of using your newsletter as a media relations tool, Abbot says, include:

• Extending your reach or influence beyond targeted readers
• Increasing your credibility and influence with target readers.

He explains what makes a newsletter article appealing to both readers and the media:

• Widespread interest
• News that your newsletter breaks before anyone else
• Information that isn't available anywhere else
• Some dramatic quality

Abbott's Manager's Guide is not the definitive book on newsletter management, but it helps keep managers on the right track. (Order the book via the publisher's website, www.managersguide.com.)
 

About the reviewer
Dave Freedman is a Chicago-based writer, editor, and newsletter developer. He is the founder of Newsletter Strategy Session.