Posted By Melanie Kavanagh I have produced a couple of health and safety newsletters within my company that went down quite well, and have now been asked by the MD to produce an all singing, all dancing Company Newsletter. It is something we are looking to issue twice a year, with all managers and directors being involved with gathering the info together to go in it. My MD has asked me to gather examples of other company Newsletters, to try and get ideas of content structure and layout. Whilst I am somewhat flattered (??!!) that I have been entrusted with this task, my media studies A Level seems like a distant memory, so if anybody has got a copy of a company newsletter I could look at it would be a great help. Also, I currently use Microsoft Publisher to produce the small newsletter. Can anybody recommend some software that will help create a more professional looking newsletter? Any tips/advice would be greatly appreciated. Many Thanks, Mel

Posted By Merv Newman Melanie, I see a lot of newsletters from different companies. There are different levels and I am not sure where you are at. Top level is a quarterly from head office. usually interviews with various bosses and maybe a few "model" employees. This can be mass printed and distributed worldwide. Next level is a monthly at plant level. I'll come back to this. Third level is a weekly departmental (on very large sites) newsletter mainly talking about production/quality/environment/H&S (the latter coming in fourth) This one is quite often photocopied. Back to the monthly. I'm looking for quality and content. Quality should be 4-colour on glossy. At least four sides. Content : starts with message from a senior manager. I like that message to be about safety but they do have other concerns and things they want to communicate. Also on the front page you should see reporting of an event important in the life of the company. This could be a production record, visit from clients, marketing success, or HSE. They should take turns. The other subjects should be found elsewhere in the newsletter. Photos of groups of employees going about their work or in problem-solving meetings are a plus. Interviews of managers and employees too. Some sites do a sort of personal column, interviewing an employee about their hobbies. Some also do interviews with new or soon-to-be-retiring employees, with photos. And, I suppose, somewhere in there you have to stick the statistics. Frequency rate, number of accidents. Keep it simple. No-one is going to read them or, even if they do, they won't remember them. Same goes for all the other numbers that management want you to stick in. Every now and then I encourage sites to do a special on HSE. All four sides on HSE. With other stuff squeezed in to the bottom of page four. If you have done media studies then you don't need advice on use of colour, mixing of type faces or layout. I do have examples but can't really send them by e-mail. And they are all in French. Merv

Posted By Merv Newman Mel, 6 to 8 pages. Actually you can't do six, it has to be eight. I reckon your MD already has a pretty good idea of the most important subjects to cover, namely himself. And his great achievements/plans for the future. If you are meeting up with managers over the next week or two that will give you great material for articles either in the first edition or the next ones. Following on from Jeff's post, I like to mix on-the-job safety with off-the-job. Themes for the season (winter driving, holiday safety ...) and themes for the home. The example I often use is "where will you come across the most dangerous chemical you will ever use ?" the answer is usually "under the kitchen sink" Especially if you have a bottle of something to unblock the drains. Food/cooking hygiene. Had a good article once on how to stock your fridge. Why are we always told to store that thawing, dripping salmonella laden chicken ABOVE the salad ? And we had some occasional interviews with the local social security people, fire brigade, police and ambulances Something new, something bright, something interesting every time. And maybe something borrowed, something blue. (but not too risqué) something old, something new. I'm not sure if I have publisher with the XP but why not send it to me anyway Merv

Posted By Merv Newman Mel, one sheet of A3 folded in half will give you four sides of A4 to print on. Two sheets of A3 will give you eight. If you want to go for 6 then you have a single page of A4 to insert. Which will fall out 'cause you can't staple them together. And if the MD is asking you to do this then he should allow you a budget. Talk to a local printer. We do the set-up and lay-out in house then give them the CD-ROM and they print off, fold and staple however many copies we need. Good that you have a close source in the fire brigade. Do you have any other contacts such as doctors, nurses, police, social workers ... ? Fire officers usually have a really wide range of contacts in these areas even if they don't consciously realise it. It's part of the job. All those people would be really committed to H&S and will do anything (even be interviewed) for a pie and a pint. Merv

Posted By Melanie Kavanagh Hi Merv, We have got a huge, fancy printer on site, so I usually just print A4 double sides, and hold them together with a plastic spine. It is seriously time consuming though, and yes, I personally had to assemble 160 copies!! I have got a meeting with my MD on Monday, so I will see how he feels about getting it done at the printers this time. I tried emailing you a copy of the last one, but it bounced back, I think the attachment is too large. I will see if I can compress the file and try again. I just hope the intention of the newsletter is to provide info to employees in an interesting format as opposed to something that just looks flashy on a side table in reception. As for other contacts, my best friend is a social worker, several cousins are nurses and one works for the police. All I need to find now is a doctor and I've cracked it!!! Many Thanks, Mel