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March 05, 2008
Borrow this idea
PR News, the company that helps “build the bridge between public relations and the bottom line,” publishes a weekly newsletter sent via e-mail. Since PR News would like me as a subscriber, the company has been sending me sample issues with special-rate offers. (See a sample issue.)
Since I’ll read anything, I’ve been looking at the issues, which are nicely organized and well-written, but don’t contain a lot of content that interests me (After all, I’m not in PR).
However, the weekly newsletter has one front-page feature that I would recommend you leverage for your own publication: “Seven things you will learn in this week’s issue of PR News.”
Instead of simply offering a Contents box with page numbers, the “Seven things” brief offers short synopses of content—one-sentence summaries that capture a salient fact from pertinent articles.
For example, in the February 18 issue, the second item reads, “57% of surveyed execs ranked Tuesday as the most productive workday (p. 3).” And here’s #6: “It only takes five to seven seconds for one person to make a judgment of another. (p. 8)”
It’s informative, it’s provocative, and it makes you want to read more. And it acknowledges that readers won’t necessarily read every article, but they will appreciate the opportunity to quickly skim and learn something valuable.
Borrow (okay, steal) this idea for your own publication.
Posted by Alison Davis at March 5, 2008 04:26 PM