Newsletter

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A newsletter is a printed or electronic report containing news concerning the activities of a business or an organization that is sent to its members, customers, employees or other subscribers. Newsletters generally contain one main topic of interest to its recipients. A newsletter may be considered grey literature. E-newsletters are delivered electronically via e-mail and can be viewed as spamming if e-mail marketing is sent unsolicited. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Contents

The newsletter is the most common form of serial publication. [5] About two-thirds of newsletters are internal publications, aimed towards employees and volunteers, while about one-third are external publications, aimed towards advocacy or special interest groups. [5]

History

In ancient Rome, newsletters were exchanged between officials or friends. [2] By the Middle Ages, they were exchanged between merchant families. [2] Trader's newsletters covered various topics such as the availability and pricing of goods, political news, and other events that would influence trade. [2] These commercial newsletters were in effect, the first "serious" outlet for news publishing, from which evolved newspapers. [2]

The first full "newspaper" was Relation of Strasbourg , printed in 1609 by Johann Carolus. Many rivals soon followed, such as the German Avisa Relation oder Zeitung and the Dutch Nieuwe Tijdingen . [2] By the end of the 17th century, several newspapers were established all across Europe, and were often translated into other languages. [2] By the late 17th century, several governments were censoring newspapers, which 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 created and distributed electronically by companies, organizations or individuals.

Newsletter marketing is a form of direct-to-consumer advertising. This is used by companies that want to send information directly to potential and existing customers. [6] When received unsolicited, they can be seen as spam.

Newsletters are also used by organizations to inform their members of ongoing developments. [7]

Writing and distributing personal newsletters by individuals can be observed since the late 2010s in the advent of social networking services. Due to the way the algorithms on such services work, followers may not see the updates someone posts.

Production

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

Until the early 20th century, newsletters were generally produced by letterpress. The development of spirit duplicators and mimeograph machines in the early 20th century made short-run reproduction more economical. In the 1960s, xerographic photocopying became ubiquitous.

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spamming</span> Unsolicited electronic messages, especially advertisements

Spamming is the use of messaging systems to send multiple unsolicited messages (spam) to large numbers of recipients for the purpose of commercial advertising, for the purpose of non-commercial proselytizing, for any prohibited purpose, or simply repeatedly sending the same message to the same user. While the most widely recognized form of spam is email spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, online classified ads spam, mobile phone messaging spam, Internet forum spam, junk fax transmissions, social spam, spam mobile apps, television advertising and file sharing spam. It is named after Spam, a luncheon meat, by way of a Monty Python sketch about a restaurant that has Spam in almost every dish in which Vikings annoyingly sing "Spam" repeatedly.

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A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is referred to as "the mailing list", or simply "the list".

Electronic publishing includes the digital publication of e-books, digital magazines, and the development of digital libraries and catalogues. It also includes the editing of books, journals, and magazines to be posted on a screen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Publication</span> Content made available to the general public

To publish is to make content available to the general public. While specific use of the term may vary among countries, it is usually applied to text, images, or other audio-visual content, including paper. Publication means the act of publishing, and also any copies issued for public distribution.

The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century, and is now used by many businesses, websites and even pharmaceutical companies in partnership with governments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CAN-SPAM Act of 2003</span> American law to regulate bulk e-mail

The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act of 2003 is a law passed in 2003 establishing the United States' first national standards for the sending of commercial e-mail. The law requires the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to enforce its provisions. Introduced by Republican Conrad Burns, the act passed both the House and Senate during the 108th United States Congress and was signed into law by President George W. Bush in December 2003 and was enacted on January 1, 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile phone spam</span> Unwanted communication through a mobile phone

Mobile phone spam is a form of spam, directed at the text messaging or other communications services of mobile phones or smartphones. As the popularity of mobile phones surged in the early 2000s, frequent users of text messaging began to see an increase in the number of unsolicited commercial advertisements being sent to their telephones through text messaging. This can be particularly annoying for the recipient because, unlike in email, some recipients may be charged a fee for every message received, including spam. Mobile phone spam is generally less pervasive than email spam, where in 2010 around 90% of email is spam. The amount of mobile spam varies widely from region to region. In North America, mobile spam steadily increased after 2008 and accounted for half of all mobile phone traffic by 2019. In parts of Asia up to 30% of messages were spam in 2012.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internal communications</span>

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The term opt-out refers to several methods by which individuals can avoid receiving unsolicited product or service information. This option is usually associated with direct marketing campaigns such as e-mail marketing or direct mail. A list of those who have opted out is called a Robinson list.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brochure</span> Flyer, pamphlet, or leaflet that is used to pass information about something

A brochure is a promotional document primarily used to introduce a company, organization, products, or services and inform prospective customers or members of the public of the benefits. Although, initially, a paper document that can be folded into a template, pamphlet, or leaflet, a brochure can also be a set of related unfolded papers put into a pocket folder or packet or can be in digital format.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Information pollution</span>

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References

  1. newsletter (British English, American English): Cambridge English Dictionary, retrieved on 2017-05-18.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "History of publishing - the first newspapers". Britannica . Retrieved 2019-11-26.
  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. 1 2 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".

Further reading