Boring Newsletters

While surfing the Web, I came across a very interesting article from BizCommunity.com titled “Do Any of You Actually Read Your Company Newsletter?” (http://www.biz-community.com/Article/196/18/12132.html) BizCommunity.com is South Africa’s leading daily advertising, marketing and media news resource for the industry. The article talks about how companies often include pages of information in their newsletters and pictures about things like an employee having a baby, an employee getting married and trips employees take. The article points out that while some of these things may be interesting to some and not to others, and even though some of these things do have a place in the newsletter, companies need to be careful with spending too much time and too much space on these types of stories.

The article suggests that in order to make company newsletters more interesting, someone should be responsible for coordinating it, specifically someone who can write. Additionally, the article mentions that it is just as important to get some feedback from employees as to what they would like to read about. Company newsletters are used to communicate news in a timely and targeted manner to a company’s internal publics—their employees. Newsletters are a very powerful tool and are used to update employees on what is happening in other departments, stock prices, management initiatives, philanthropic and social events, special seminars for employees, etc. When newsletters are not interesting enough to catch an employee’s attention, and therefore, thrown away or not even looked at, the organization loses the opportunity to successfully get their message out.

In Chapter 9 of Cutlip, Center and Broom, it says that newsletters are the most common form of periodical publication. Moreover, Paul Swift, managing editor of the Newsletter on Newsletters said that “Newsletters are a medium that is here to stay… and grow… There is more value being put on targeting communication with the corporate world and between associations and their members, as opposed to mass media” (p. 239).

Knowing that newsletters aren’t going anywhere, it is extremely important that companies figure out how to use them effectively. Besides making someone from the communications department who can write responsible for coordinating the newsletter, how can public relations practitioners make newsletters more interesting? What things can be included in newsletters that could spark the interest of employees?

Pros or Cons: Development through Tourism

Tourism has been regarded as playing a major role in bringing about social change. It has certainly exerted a very important economic, productive, and cultural influence, but it is also evident that it has been a source of social conflict for different groups and movements.

Tourism and its influence on host communities have given rise to highly controversial beliefs: some suggest that it is an opportunity for underdeveloped countries to participate in economic growth and social development, allowing them to catch up politically and culturally with the rest of the world. Turner and Ash (1975) support the view that it contributes towards the development of the Third World, although it tends to incorporate the worst cultural aspects of the industrialized countries that act as their source markets, thus hindering their progress and development. On the other hand, Britton and Clarke (1987) point out that mass tourism may have collaborated in hindering the permanency of local cultures and in spreading processes like prostitution or delinquency.

What if you have to support, as a PR practitioner, either side, what would you prefer? And why?

Ethics tool: 20 questions

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) has recnetly issued a draft version of their 'ethics tool'. This tool consists of 20 questions designed to help clients make ethical decisions when creating campaigns. http://www.womma.org/20questions/
This tool makes me wonder if asking 20 questions before starting a campaign is enough- are there questions that should be asked but are not included in these 20? How much education do practitioners need before being able to make ethical decisions on behalf of their company? Recently some large PR firms, ones who should have known better, have had their ethics called into question. Who should be in charge of ethics in an organization?