[Nfb-editors] Blueprint to a basic newsletter

[Robert Leslie Newman]

Mike and others
RE: Is it a newsletter or a --- what?

This was from Mike's recent post: 
"....It also seems to me that we must consider for whom we are writing our
newsletters.  Are we writing for our members, potential members, agency
people, the general public, some or all of the above or none of the above?
Put another way, there was a time when newsletters and written
correspondence were about the only vehicles to communicate with our members.
I may be committing heresy here but I think this is no longer the case..."


And what I got to thinking in response is- I think the term "newsletter" is
out dated and does not reflect what we are creating, both in intent and in
in the transmitting vehicle  for our text. In my mind, what I read in the
majority of our publications, from "The Braille Monitor," on down to the
"Nebraska Independent," is not a newsy letter, but more of a informational
and educational magazine of some pretty good intellectual content.
Persuasion and mind-set changing also comes to mind as my thoughts range
back on many of the articles of new technologies , of personal triumphs, and
dreams for the future. Then, adding to this, when we started using email and
posting our creations upon our Websites this too was a cross-over point from
that classic newsletter feel, to the new electronic age of the WWW and
computers in your pocket. 

Finally, to further support the need and place for our "new age newsletters"
---  I've heard from several sources that with all the various types of
social networking options that now exists, that people are buried with news
and there no longer is a place for our type of publication. And yeah! I bet
people do get tired of avalanches of emails, tweets, Face Book flashes, and
this Bell and that Whistle! And all of it coming in with --- haphazardly,
this small bit of info and that worthless blog of trivial chatter; the
seeker of information having to check first one source then another, one
news option  after another option, until who has the time and brain cells to
sort it all out! Where --- we offer a one-stop, well thought out and highly
engineered collection of what is most important and well written offerings
of both news of worth and articles to keep the reader abreast of portentous
happenings of the now and near future. 

Yup, there is still a place and need for our publications of this electronic
newsletter type. (For our members, first. Then, for anyone else who wishes
to pull it up and take a read.) 



Robert Leslie Newman
President, Omaha Chapter NFB
President, NFB Writers' Division
Division Website
http://www.nfb-writers-division.org
Chairperson, Newsletter Publication committee 
Personal Website-
http://www.thoughtprovoker.info