Summary of presentation and research findings on 200 school newsletters. Presentation 'The 'new' newsletter: the future of school pubslishing'

1. The 'new' newsletter: the future of
school publishing

2. Summary

3. Key Pillar 1: Websites have
moved from infotainment to
‘search’.

4. Key Pillar 2: Short bite-sized
skimmable content.

5. Key Pillar 3: We don’t all absorb
content in the same way.

6. Key Pillar 4:
The Power of Context
6

7. Context Rule 1: engagement
strength varies by content
accessorising
7

8. Context Rule 2: Frequency is
context
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9. Context Rule 3: Devices and
platforms are context
9

10. Key Pillar 5: Analytics
10

11. Key Pillar 6:
The Communications Strategy
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12. The Future of School
Publishing
Halving your publishing time and
doubling parents engagement
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13. The format of the school
newsletter hasn’t changed
since photocopiers were
introduced to schools.
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14. Started asking questions?
• No school defended its newsletter readership as being high
• Schools that moved from weekly to fortnightly stated that there was not a
murmur from parents
• No school could articulate their communications strategy
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It pre-dates the internet, smart phones
and 2 working parents. It also pre-dates
a time when information was scarce.

16. Got to thinking
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17. is so strong that „it‟ drives the
school instead of the school driving
„it‟.
It‟s a beast that demands to be fed
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18. The school newsletter is largely
space and time driven not driven by
communications strategy
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19. Research Methodology
• Analysed over 200 school newsletters
• Victoria, Western Australia
• 90% primary, 10% secondary
• Interviews with over 50 principals
• Mix of incidental and prescribed
• Conferences, Seminars, PD’s
• Exposed research to hundred’s
• Online Survey – productivity
• 30 responses
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20. Content Mix
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21. Content Mix: By type
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COMMUNITY 30%
10%: Extra curricular activities
10%: Community news
10%: Advertising
INTERNAL 20%
15%: Principals message
Blowing school’s trumpet
Key staff messages
3%: Compliance
2%: Admin impacts
STUDENTS 37%
Teaching in action
Class reports
Themed events
25%: Student activities/showcasing
5%: Student acknowledgements
7%: Dates effecting students
PARENTS 11%
2%: Parents supporting learning
2%: Parent education
3%: P&F/C
Shout outs volunteers
Government prog’s
Fundraisers
4%: Dates effecting parents

22. Today‟s newsletter
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COMMUNITY 30%
INTERNAL 20%
STUDENTS 37%
PARENTS 11%

23. Over half of your newsletter is……..
?
PR
Public relations is the deliberate, planned and
sustained effort to establish and maintain
mutual understanding between an organisation
(or individual) and its (or their) publics
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24. More observations
• Almost no reference in the school newsletter to the school’s website
• Calendar synch very low
• Missing opportunities to build resource culture
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25. The Statistics
Average number of articles 23
Average number of pages 5
Average number of hours to publish 5
Average hourly rate $40
PA cost weekly cycle $8,000
Fortnightly cycle $4,000
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26. One reason why the newsletter is not
being read
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nottimelytimely
not important important
How much of a newsletter effects me? Can be down
to 4%

27. wiifm
Dates effecting me
My kids
Classroom
The rest
My InterestContent Mix
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28. Context is singularly the most
important factor in effective
communications. Schools do
not have a content problem;
they have a major context
problem.
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29. 72%
click here13%
A reminder about Friday’s….9%
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30. Imagine if facebook was a
fortnightly newsletter from your
„friends‟. Would you read it? Same
content, different context
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31. Context:
Devices, Platforms and Publishing
Frequency
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32. How do you achieve a 50% reduction in
your publishing efforts?
• Write more often (website)
• Change the 23 articles a week (or fortnight) to
• 1 article per day (work to a plan)
• Cyclical summary
5 vs 23 10 vs 23
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33. Communications Planner
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34. Communication Strategy

35. Turn your NEWSLETTER into your
HOMEPAGE then into an EMAIL (or
facebook, twitter an app)
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36. Responsive Template: Reacts to
mobile
over 40% of web views are from
mobiles
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37. Goal:
to halve the publishing time and
double parent engagement

38. Blockers to re-engineering your
communications

39. Re-engineer Your Communications
• Take a 12 month view – term by term incremental changes
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40. “I need to see it and archive it”
Event Calendar Expires naturally
Policy/Compliance Web page Ongoing (or replaced)
Students Awards Web page Annual delete
Community News Web page Over-ride (expires)
Forms Web page Ongoing (or replaced)
Excursion PR Web page Annual delete

41. “If it wasn‟t for Karen chasing me
around the office for the principal‟s
message every week it‟d never get
done.”
Outcome Content /term Frequency Medium
Events Event announcements As they occur Calendar, email,
fb, app
Event reminders 12 Weekly email, fb
Teacher
Capabilities
1 Teacher focus 3 monthly email
Community
Consultation
Community polling 3 monthly fb, online form
(page)
Email
Curriculum Class activities 6 f/night fb
Happy Kids 6

42. “There‟s no way I‟m going to be
thinking about communications and
creating content everyday.”
“I agree so
write it once
per week.”
“….but send a
piece everyday.”

43. “Some parents won‟t like it.”
Call it a
trial

44. Measuring Success

45. Don‟t ask parents……
….If they
like the
change
….ask them this
week to name 3
things in the
newsletter
….then ask them
after the trial to
name 3 things they
recently read about
the school

46. The Solution: 2 Step Plan
Technology
Deliver to popular platforms
email, fb, app
Receive on
pc, tablet, mobile
Process
Implement a ‘term
communications plan’
Write…..
once
less
more often
1 2

47. Thank you

48. The sponsor-ed Group
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E: info@sponsor-ed.com.au
P: 1300 755 010
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