Electronic Newsletters:
A Viable Option

Electronic newsletters versus print newsletters is a debate that is heard often in Mensa. However, entitling it "electronic versus print" is probably not a good way to approach an objective airing of the subject, even if one prefers electronic over print or print over electronic. It needn't become a divisive thing: There is room for both.

Personally, I like to see the different appearances and savor the feel of the various newsletters' paper, but I can't see that getting in the way of what is more practical for me: a complete pdf copy of the identical layout of the hard copy, available on-line. I don't care for the old-style CSUBs (mailed, printed newsletters available to Mensa editors as one-year subscriptions); they stuff my rural mailbox, and I don't like all the paper that accumulates around the house. But I would like to have the option of getting a print copy less frequently than for an entire year. Now that would be a CSUB option I'd like to see implemented in the near future. Until then, I'm hoping that increasing numbers of editors will find a way to put their newsletters on-line so that interested parties, whether they are editors or other members, may sample them whenever they feel like it.

There is, on the other hand, the practicality issue of producing on-line newsletters. A complete and identical reproduction of the print copy would result in very large pdfs for the groups that put out larger issues. That's not really as impractical as it sounds, depending on several variables, including the number of photos, graphics, fonts and other memory-hogging elements present in the print newsletter. Part of the solution lies in how the pdf is made. Print or press-ready files can be converted to screen-only pdfs suitable for the Web. This reduces the file size, and therefore the download time.

Many editors and readers fear that electronic dissemination means limiting the editor's creativity. If a local group is able to produce a large newsletter, perhaps packed with photos and graphics every month, yet doesn't want a large pdf, there are many choices for going on-line; among these options are creating individual pdfs for every page or every section, or putting only certain parts of the newsletter on-line. Many groups already do this. The downside is that members miss something when the whole issue isn't available.

How about sending the newsletters by e-mail? This idea seems to crop up every time members suggest electronic distribution. E-mail would be a good way to keep sensitive content more private than if the issues were on a Website or available for ftp, but e-mailed issues are not a good thing for most members at this time. Many members still have a five-megabyte limit on their mailboxes. Twenty or 30 pages of a graphics-rich newsletter or newsletters would fill that up almost immediately, and saving the newsletters off to an overburdened hard drive is not a first-rate solution. It would be best to be able to view issues on-line with a browser.

Now, what about all the people who want the convenience of hard copy? And what about the members who never get on-line? At this point in time, we do need hard copy for those members, and we still need an option for all members to get hard copy if that is their preference. Perhaps we'll always want hard copy for one reason or another. Still, for those editors who can't or won't do an on-line newsletter, perhaps they will think back to the times when no one at all had a home telephone. Now think ahead a little to cellular phones: Most people who have cellulars now didn't think they'd ever use one regularly.

... someday soon a universal handheld communications device will enable all of us to read anything, anywhere.

It's not a great leap of the imagination to see how someday soon a universal handheld communications device will enable all of us to read anything, anywhere. Today's text messaging devices do allow us to read text and Web pages (perhaps the phone you already are carrying does this), but getting the content onto them is up to the content creators. There's also a very good chance that someday a Standing Order (SO) will be made that requires an on-line newsletter for every local group, just as the current SO requires a local calendar.

Consider your present newsletter arrangement. Even if it's adequate today, aren't you willing to admit that more and more of your local members will be looking for your newsletter on-line? If they haven't asked for it yet in great numbers, they may simply assume you are unable to do it and so resign themselves to not having it.

Are you a local Mensa editor without a complete newsletter on-line in its original format? Do you need help getting your copies on-line? Do you prefer to have your issues available only to members?

AML's current Communications Committee (formerly the Internet Services Committee) has been discussing how it can be made easier to get issues of local group newsletters on-line. They've discussed how editors who work in PageMaker, Microsoft Word, or other software might accomplish either pdf conversion or some other easy content-to-Web process. So far, these discussions and plans are in their infancy; attempts to get a group rate for local Mensa editors from Adobe have failed, and no one person wants to take on the daunting task of converting large numbers of monthly newsletters to on-line formats as a service to local editors.

The answer to that problem may be more a local one than a national one. Editors who don't know how to create an on-line issue could ask their local Webmasters. Webmasters are always learning new things, so why not give them the challenge of pdf creation or other methods of facilitating on-line

... every local group's on-line newsletter could be hotlinked to the AML site.

newsletters? Editors wanting to test the waters themselves can try on-line Website demos with a limited number of pdf creations available (try http://createpdf.adobe.com).

Concerns have been raised about information protection for on-line newsletters. Here, too, there are options. Some editors take all the sensitive information in the print newsletter out when they put the edited version on-line. Some groups put only selected items on-line. Other groups restrict readership with passwords. Individual authentication, a system whereby each member has to enter an individual membership number and password to reach certain Mensa Web pages, is now available to local group Webmasters. Editors and Webmasters who have felt that previous methods of securing sensitive newsletter content were not secure enough can now use this national technology to put newsletters on-line without changes.

Someday soon, every local group's on-line newsletter could be hotlinked to the AML (American Mensa, Ltd.) site, just as each local group's contact information and Website (if there is one) is linked there right now. Currently, there is no central way to find local newsletters, except for those CSUB hard copies; and that's too bad, because there are many members who would really love to see your local group's newsletter.

Electronic newsletters are not a choice over print newsletters. They are, instead, an option, a very viable and useful one.

— Peggy Madsen

Peggy Madsen of High Mountain Mensa is both a Webmaster and an editor. Among other Mensa activities, she was formerly the head of the AML Internet Services Content Subcommittee and is editing the Webmaster Handbook.