To further improve our community engagement, I reintroduced El Estoque’s public newsletter, which had been laying dormant for four years. Although many community members find our content interesting and relevant, not everyone has a habit of checking our website periodically. The newsletter would help us develop a consistent reader base — one that might be more likely to support us financially in the future — and publicize our community-based stories.
To make sure we weren’t overwhelming people with emails, the signup form had potential subscribers indicate topics they were interested in.
I used Mailchimp to design a popup and subscription notification to show up in the corner of our website. It automatically opens if a user has been on the site for 30 seconds or shows exit intent on desktop. I used our average time spent on our website, 56 seconds, to choose when to automatically show the popup (around half of our average view time). I promoted the newsletter in local parent group chats as well.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
1. Expanding Our Readership
One issue we faced this year was our print quantity. We print 1,000 copies of each issue and distribute 15 to each classroom on campus, but this still leaves us with a substantial amount of undistributed copies. These typically hang around our journalism classroom until they are unfortunately recycled for lack of space.
To feed two birds with one scone, I went around to local hotspots to drop off our copies. Pitching our magazine was a bit daunting, especially since I got rejected a few times. But not only would this initiative help us distribute more copies, it would also spread awareness of our publication, especially because our content pertains to many different groups in our community. We were able to successfully leave around 20 magazines each at the Cupertino City Hall, the Cupertino Library and the local middle school, Kennedy Middle School.
2. Community Engagement
When I took on the editor-in-chief role, I gained access to the backend of our email account. One thing I immediately noticed was a local dad who regularly emailed us updates about MVHS Track & Field.
Although I passed the information to our Sports editors, I realized that if it weren’t for this specific person who was very invested in emailing us, we wouldn’t have known about the record. The same was true of other clubs on campus, or students with interesting stories we don’t know about.
In response, I created a story tip form for people to submit their story ideas. To promote this new feature, I created a flyer students could scan around campus and added a new story highlight to our Instagram profile.
3. Professional Inspiration
When designing the newsletter, I drew inspiration from professional newsletters I admired. These included AP’s Morning Wire, AP’s Ground Game and Pitchfork’s 10 Best Reviewed Albums of the Week.
-
Ground Game includes personal touches, such as an introduction from the person sending the newsletter. This helps create a personal connection between the news outlet and the receiver. They also summarize the newsletter content concisely in the beginning.
-
Morning Wire emphasizes diverse topics. Typically, they make sure to include one novel or lighthearted story at the end.
-
AP offers different subscription options for people with different interests.
-
Pitchfork has a modern header. Their compact grid format allows them to emphasize the visuals first, drawing viewers in.
I brought in these features by organizing different newsletter topics, using the summary structure, focusing on visuals and signing off in a personal way.