Newsletter Management

• Three steps to creating organizational support for your efforts and your newsletter.
• Glossary of stories you can write.
• Deadline calculator.
• Costs: Time and money.
  

Newsgathering

• Four fundamentals of newsgathering.
• What is "news"? What is local news?
• How the interview can dramatically improve your story.
  EVEN IF it is one phone call.
• How to ask great questions.
• Three types of questions.
• Typical reporter's news sheet (pdf).

Writing

• Four steps to effective news writing.
• Four major writing errors.
• Great stories, some examples.
• Rewriting exercise.
• How to flesh out a story using interviews.
• Sample questions.
• Captions or cutlines for photographs.
• Writing headlines. Why it matters.

Design

• Slick production: Do you really need it?
• How to make your newsletter unnecessarily expensive! (And how to avoid it).
• Design Basics.
• How to do a layout.
• Good layouts.
• Layouts that never work.
• Which layout program should I use?

Art

• Art formats explained: TIF, EPS, GIF, JPG.
• Digital photo basics.
• Photographs: Posing people properly.
• Posing people for action.
• 4 Tips for better photos.
• Captions or cutlines for photographs.

Printing

• Introduction to printing.
• History -- before offset.
• Today -- offset basics.
  Printing from your inkjet.
• Printing options.
• Secrets your printer won't tell you.
• Simple truths to reduce your printing costs.

Proofing

• What is proofing.
• Spell check limitations.
• Spell check errors.
• Proofing tips and common errors to look for.
• Proofing captions.
• Final proofing checklist.

 

Glossary of Subjects

Dictionary of Printing Terms

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