Creating your own newsletter
May 21 2007 15:54
A couple of us are thinking of producing a local newsletter. There’s not many of us involved. We’re just going to start it as soon as possible, and hopefully it’ll attract more contributors along the way, rather than waiting for just the right amount of people. I came across the libcom page on producing your own newsletter.
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Getting it out
Distribution is a piece of cake when it's free. It's just a question of getting them all out into the hands of the local population. You can do that most directly by standing in the town centre and thrusting them rudely into people's hands (with a smile on your face). And you can leave them in public places like the library and town hall (small amounts but frequently - they tend to get removed). Ask in shops if you can leave a pile on the counter. And in pubs. You'll be surprised at the positive reaction to a lively local newsletter. Keen people should also be able to subscribe for a small charge to cover postage (though since they're local you could drop them in by hand and save the stamp).
So – pubs, library, maybe from a stall... Is it worth doing door to door?
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Law-abiding
Remember that you can get done for libel if you make certain claims about individuals. Get round this with humourous digs and heavy use of satire and sarcasm (think Private Eye, Have I Got News For You, etc). It is worth knowing that you cannot libel a council - so go for it!
What about using quotes from newspapers and websites? Is copyright an issue?
Production – How much does it usually cost? We’re thinking of doing an A4, double sided. Black and white will be all we can afford I guess. We have a Staples who does printing, but i’d have to check out the prices. Does anyone know any other places that would do good quality cheap printing?
May 21 2007 18:38
#2
Quote:
Is it worth doing door to door?
Definately worth doing, most people dont go to libraries, most people who are in a pub have little interest in reading newsletters, thats not to say you wont get some readership in both areas but door to door is definately the best option. Its a lot of hard work and trapesing round estates isnt glamorous work. It also depends what your putting into the paper, what sort of content is it likely to contain?
May 21 2007 18:46
#3
Door to door, like vaneigem-a-c says it depends on content. When I've done it I though it was alright, hard work, but more rewarding than standing in the street and you know exactly what you're shifting. Not sure what impact it actually has though.
May 22 2007 00:09
#4
mk12 wrote:
A couple of us are thinking of producing a local newsletter. There’s not many of us involved. We’re just going to start it as soon as possible, and hopefully it’ll attract more contributors along the way, rather than waiting for just the right amount of people.
This is fine, but be aware that this might not necessarily happen. I know that right now you are probably thinking that you're newsletter will be so great that no one will be able to resist getting involved, but in experience it doesn't work quite like this. In Norwich we produce a newsletter called The Great Commotion. Every issue we include a little bit encouraging members of the public to submit their own articles, but no one ever has. All the people who have gotten involved tend to be people who have been sucked into it via Norwich Anarchists. Getting people involved in newsletters can be hard. I suspect that most people don't feel they are qualified to report the news. Also, remember that some of the people who show interest at first may soon lose interest. I remember when I went to an early TGC meeting when it was still nothing more than an idea. The people involved with TGC today are, for the most part, completely different to those who came to the first few meetings, less than two years ago.
Quote:
Production – How much does it usually cost? We’re thinking of doing an A4, double sided. Black and white will be all we can afford I guess. We have a Staples who does printing, but i’d have to check out the prices. Does anyone know any other places that would do good quality cheap printing?
If it is at all possible, get some students involved and set up a student society. That way you can get free photocopying off a university. This is how we print The Great Commotion and we would be lost without it. Photocopying may not seem like it costs much, but if you plan to publish a free publication on a regular basis, you will need to do a lot of fundraising. I really can't stress how much we rely on our student comrades for publishing. I realise that it might not be an option for you, but if it is then go for it. We have literally saved hundreds of pounds by exploting the university.
Hope I haven't put you off. Good luck with everything. If you guys need any help then feel free to get in touch with The Great Commotion. We're probably not the most experienced people in this whole field, but we'll gladly offer any help we can.
May 22 2007 09:48
#5
mk12,
1. You might try initiating a local campaign as a starter - a new supermarket, traffic, a development, etc - then evolve into a newsletter.
2. Local newsletters/papers are seriously hard work. Make sure your group understands this before you start. Be prepared for an unresponsive readership.
3.Newsletters are a soul-destroying acts to follow. In the 70's/80's we spread our message by beer mats and tiny stickers on lamp posts. Perhaps there is a more innovative way.
4. Don't be put off. Go for it.
Regards
Peter Good(TCA)
May 22 2007 12:26
#6
Check out the loacl newsletters that currently exist around the country:
http://www.roughmusic.org.uk/
http://www.eco-action.org/porkbolter/
http://www.gaggedanarchist.tk/
etc, etc
see what they do
May 22 2007 12:31
#7
This is a link to Skills for action: talking & writing, which is a Solidarity Federation pamphlet about getting the message out there in a way that people can understand.
The stuff about writing articles, etc, starts on page 8.
http://solfed.org.uk/selfed/pdfs/skills.pdf
(As you can see, it's a pdf).
May 22 2007 13:36
#8
Distribution - Door to door sounds good, but there's not many of us, so it could prove problematic. Putting it in the library is easy, but library goers are not really the audience we're after to be honest.
Content - Personally i'd like it to focus on local issues. I envisaged going through the local press (papers, websites) and finding stories which we think we can develop. We'd then try to look at these stories from a class perspective.
Thanks for the links - I will have a look at what others are doing. I have had a look at Haringey Solidarity Group, and their newsletter looks good.
May 22 2007 13:39
#9
the button wrote:
This is a link to Skills for action: talking & writing, which is a Solidarity Federation pamphlet about getting the message out there in a way that people can understand.The stuff about writing articles, etc, starts on page 8.
May 22 2007 13:41
#10
(Someone who's good at computers, please photoshop Jack's head onto that picture).
May 22 2007 18:25
#11
Quote:
Check out the loacl newsletters that currently exist around the country:
http://www.roughmusic.org.uk/
http://www.eco-action.org/porkbolter/
http://www.gaggedanarchist.tk/
etc, etc
see what they do
not to mention the wonderful Brummagem Star
www.brumstar.org
May 22 2007 18:52
#12
The Great Commotion - sorry, I should have posted a link in my previous post.
May 23 2007 11:10
#13
mk12 wrote:
Distribution - Door to door sounds good, but there's not many of us, so it could prove problematic. Putting it in the library is easy, but library goers are not really the audience we're after to be honest.
Probably best to limit your print run to what you can handle. You can try paces where people will be bored, such as takeaways. Might not work that well but it's a place where people stop for a while and usually haven't got anything to do. Especially if you can persuade them to let you put it on the counter.
May 23 2007 14:59
#14
I know someone who works in a Chinese actually...woo hoo.
May 23 2007 15:11
#15
For general local newsletters, take-aways, kebab houses, chippies, libraries, community centres, pubs, doctors' and dentists' waiting rooms, football grounds, are all good.
What is also useful is to target each issue to a particular audience and distribute it to that manageable target. So for example, one issue might be aimed at unemployed workers, so you do the job centres. Another issue might be to do with the the NHS, so you target hospital workers and NHS users. Another still might be aimed at fast food workers so you do workers at Macdonalds, Burger King, KFC, etc, etc.
May 23 2007 15:29
#16
Yeah, works with door to door as well, with gagged we deliver to the areas where anarchos live on a reguar basis (this is the best imho, especially if your group members live in blocks of flats or in estates with no gardens like ours do!).
If there is a news story focused on a certain area we try to deliver all around that area, for example with the recenthousing stock transfer in some of the valleys we got the council house list of the council and delivered to all them houses. Bit more hassle but you get alot more feedback, which is a real boost to the thankless task a newsletter normally is.
May 26 2007 22:30
#17
Peter Good wrote:
mk12,1. You might try initiating a local campaign as a starter - a new supermarket, traffic, a development, etc - then evolve into a newsletter.
2. Local newsletters/papers are seriously hard work. Make sure your group understands this before you start. Be prepared for an unresponsive readership.
3.Newsletters are a soul-destroying acts to follow. In the 70's/80's we spread our message by beer mats and tiny stickers on lamp posts. Perhaps there is a more innovative way.
4. Don't be put off. Go for it.
Regards
Peter Good(TCA)
Some sound advice for you there mk12.
Start small and build your way up.
As long as they're quotes and not whole stories it would fall under fair use. Images could cause problems though so make sure you know where photos and stuff have come from.
Printing can be very cheap for double sided A4. We have a friendly trade union resource centre (although I think they may have changed the title a bit lately) that does stuff very inexpensively, you may be able to get something similar if you ask around the local activisty networks. Other than that probably something like staples or a copyshop is your best bet. University ones can be quite cheap if you know any students who could get you access to it.
Don't know about door to door, never tried it, although one of the WSMers (can't remember who) was talking about their experiences of door to door distribution recently, and it seemed like it works for them.