Keeping In Touch

January/February 1992 

Scrap firms are finding that publishing their own newsletters offers benefits that extend beyond disseminating company news.

By Kent Kiser

Kent Kiser is associate editor of Scrap Processing and Recycling.

Last year, a teacher visited Hummelstein Iron & Metal Inc. (Jonesboro, Ark.) to pick up recycling information for her class. While in the lobby, she noticed copies of the company's in-house newsletter, "Hummelstein Happenings." Upon meeting Sam Hummelstein, the firm's president and treasurer, she bubbled, "That tells me you really care about your employees."

"We've gotten a lot of nice comments from visitors," Hummelstein says—and his company is not alone. Scrap processing and recycling firms in other cities are receiving praise from their employees, consumers, suppliers, and communities for their communication efforts, most of which center on company newsletters. In the process, they are learning that acknowledging good work and keeping in touch can improve employee morale, increase productivity, develop better business relations, and create a more positive corporate image.

Getting Started

Once you're ready to start a company newsletter, or improve an existing one, you should address several interrelated points:

Name.  Every publication needs an effective name that communicates its audience and content. Some examples of scrap company newsletter names include "The Turning Times" by Miller Compressing Co. ( Milwaukee ), "The Tre-Mindis News" by Mindis Recycling Inc. ( Atlanta ), and "Team Peltz News" by Peltz Corp. ( Milwaukee ). Company management can brainstorm a suitable name, or the firm can hold a contest to see which employee or department can dream up the best one.

Format and frequency. Newsletter format—the size and shape of the paper it's printed on—is usually decided according to personal preference and design considerations. The number of pages and frequency often depend on the amount of news needing to be reported, the availability of staff to manage the publication, and budget.

Budget. How much is your company willing or able to spend on a newsletter? Some scrap companies, such as Hummelstein Iron & Metal, spend $500 or less per issue, including labor, printing, and mailing costs, while larger companies that encompass several plants may spend several thousand dollars per issue.

Audience. Will the newsletter be distributed solely to employees, or will it also go to consumers, suppliers, local and state government officials, community groups, and/or visitors? Employees are certainly the primary audience of most company newsletters, but firms are increasingly using their internal publications as public relations tools to reinforce a positive corporate image in the community and keep non-company readers informed about the firm's activities.

Hummelstein maintains a strong employee focus in its newsletter, printing 50 to 75 copies of the publication and sending it primarily to the firm's 36 employees and a few key local suppliers. Some copies are also available in the company's lobby and break rooms. The firm previously published a newsletter that went both to employees and consumers, but it found that the cost—an estimated $5,000 per year—and the problem of addressing two audiences was too difficult to manage.

Miller Compressing's newsletter, on the other hand, has a stronger community and consumer focus: Out of 700 copies printed each issue, 300 are sent to employees, with the remainder going to consumers, suppliers, neighborhood organizations, local and state representatives, and others. Likewise, Mindis, which prints 8,000 to 10,000 copies of its newsletter, reaches out to its 600 employees in more than 20 facilities, as well as thousands of buyback customers, government officials, teachers, suppliers, and consumers.

Scope. Many company newsletters focus exclusively on internal company- and employee-related news. Others offer a broader scope. "We like to write articles about the community and how our business relates to the community," says Wendy High, Peltz's customer representative and newsletter editor. Peltz prints approximately 275 copies of its newsletter, which it distributes to employees, government representatives, and about 50 consumers that request it.

Still others look at larger national and international issues, and how they affect the company's operations. Southern Scrap Material Co. Ltd. ( New Orleans ), for example, selects a special focus for each issue of its new tabloid newspaper, "Southern Quarterly." The first issue examined the changing image of the scrap industry, while the second issue is slated to discuss the scrap export market. (For more details on newsletter contents, see sidebar on page XX.)

Distribution. Companies can distribute their newsletters to employees in several ways: including them in paycheck envelopes, sending them through interoffice mail, or placing them for pickup at central gathering areas. One potential drawback to all of these methods is that employees may read the publication at work—often on company time, one editor notes. Others don't find this to be a negative, pointing out that the morale it instills in employees and the education it provides them is worth the few minutes of reading time.

Other companies mail their newsletters to employees' homes because, as Hummelstein explains, they "want the families to read it. It extends that feeling of being part of the family business." Mailing newsletters is also a good way to let family members know about company programs that can benefit them, such as free health screening and wellness programs, adds Christine Cefalu, Miller Compressing's health services coordinator and newsletter editor. Companies that mail 1,000 or more copies of their newsletter may want to contract with a local mailing house, but many prefer to print their own address labels, have staff stuff envelopes, and meter the newsletters on their own postage machines.

Pulling It All Together

Newsletters can't produce themselves; you must select or hire an editor. Most scrap company newsletters are written, produced, and/or managed by one employee, whose main job is usually something other than editing the newsletter. The employee/editor is often responsible for writing most of the stories, assigning regular columns to department directors, developing stories or following leads, keying copy, and either producing the publication on typewriter or computer or working with outside typesetting, production, and printing vendors. The amount of time the employee/editor must spend to produce each issue varies from company to company, depending on the size of the newsletter, the number of people working on it, and the amount of in-house production work that is done, but it will likely require 3 to 10 hours to write and produce each page.

Sam Hummelstein is truly a one-man operation, producing his firm's bimonthly newsletter on his personal computer at home in the evenings and on weekends. He uses a Microsoft Word for Windows program, scans clip art to accompany the articles, and devotes about 40 hours to produce each issue, which he "prints" on the company's copier. Though Hummelstein enjoys covering the company "beat," he says the firm would like to eventually hire a safety and in addition to other duties personnel manager to take over basic management of the newsletter in addition to other duties.

Southern Scrap has taken a more high-tech approach. Laurin Hart, the firm's art director and editor, typesets and designs each issue on a Macintosh IIx computer with destop publishing software. Diskettes are sent to a local computer service bureau, which runs the material out as printer's film, and the film is sent to a printer. Hart then sends a specified number of newsletters to each of the firm's 16 plants to reach its 700 employees. An extra 300 copies are distributed to consumers, suppliers, sister companies, prospective employees, and others. Hart used an intern to write the copy for the first issue, and she plans to continue using the intern in upcoming issues so she can focus on design coordination and photography.

Fancy computers or desktop publishing systems are hardly de rigueur for producing a company newsletter, however. Some scrap firms simply type their stories on a typewriter, while others obtain a more professional look by contracting with a typesetting firm. The scrap company can then opt either to do the layout and paste-up work itself, or hire an outside vendor. Contracting with outside vendors may increase production costs, but it will also free the employee/editor to tend to other duties. On the other hand, the do-it-yourself route would likely be less expensive, but only if the company is willing to invest in the necessary equipment and devote the necessary staff time to the task.

Publishing Perils

Unfortunately, company newsletters are not trouble-free endeavors. "The hardest part is having enough material each issue," says Hart, who laments that she constantly has to hound employees for information. Hummelstein agrees: "You have to be tenacious to keep people interested and keep them feeding you information."

One solution is for editors to cultivate reliable news sources, or "stringers," in each department who will either write a regular column each issue or provide article leads. This network will only work, however, if the sources are willing and eager to communicate news from their respective departments. One way to entice your stringers to complete their assignments is to give them bylines.

Despite these managerial headaches, Hummelstein recommends that editors be firm on their deadlines and meet their publication dates so employees can begin to count on and look forward to the newsletter.

Companies must also vigilantly monitor their newsletters expenses. "It's very easy to spend a lot of money unnecessarily if you're not careful," says L. Keith Rinzler, Mindis's vice president of corporate marketing. "We could be spending twice as much to produce the same newsletter."

Companies can often reduce their newsletter costs by changing certain variables such as the type of paper, the number of ink colors, the number of photos, and the number of copies. Companies should request bids from several printers to make sure they're getting the best price, Rinzler advises, and they should use colors wisely. For example, a newsletter that's printed with two ink colors, say black and red, can look more varied and professional by simply using screens of those colors to produce shades of gray and pink, rather than incurring the additional expense of adding other ink colors. If the newsletter will be mailed, Rinzler points out, firms should call the Postal Service to make sure the publication is designed to get the lowest postage rate. Still, he says, "No matter how much you cut expenses, it's a costly thing to do. But we look at it as a long-term investment in our customer base."

For all companies considering launching their own newsletter, veteran newsletter editors offer this stern warning: If you can't commit to doing the newsletter right—that is, publishing it regularly, making it interesting, supporting it over the long term—then don't do it at all. "A newsletter can create a bad impression of a company as easily as it creates a good impression," Rinzler states. "You've got to be able to do it quarter after quarter, year after year. The long-term gains of such a commitment can be enormous."

Reaping the Rewards

Despite their drawbacks, newsletters offer many benefits. Notably, they help employees feel valued by recognizing and praising them for good work, accomplishments, and personal landmarks, both on and off the job. Miller Compressing, for example, profiles employees who come up with ideas on how to improve operations regarding safety, quality, efficiency, and more. Cefalu notes that individuals are mentioned in the company's newsletter often request additional copies to send to family and friends. "People like to get recognized," she observes, "and there are items in the newsletter that they look forward to reading."

Hummelstein recounts an episode in which one of the company's truck drivers proudly reached the one-month milestone in his effort to quit smoking, and he said, "I sure hope my name's in the newsletter." Such recognition can help improve employee morale and increase productivity, which seems particularly important in difficult economic times.

Newsletters also give employees a forum to learn and express their ideas. High says that Peltz tries to "educate the employees on various recycling issues and how they relate to our company and the community." Hummelstein notes, "We always try to show employees how we fit into the market."

Perhaps most important, however, is that newsletters can help develop a sense of unity in the company, or as High puts it, "make the company more of a family." Hummelstein agrees: "People feel more a part of the organization. They feel as if they're in the know, as if they're a part of what's going on."

The bottom line for these newsletter editors is that their company publications are here to stay and are definitely worth the investment. As Hummelstein asserts, "It's a fairly minor expense for a communication tool that gives our people a sense of belonging. I don't think you can put a price on that."

What to Include

How do you decide what information is "fit to print" in a company newsletter? When selecting your stories, remember that the goal is to present information of importance to your intended audience in a personal and interesting way. After all, if no one reads the newsletter, then it isn't accomplishing its purpose.

Employee/family news: Invariably, company newsletters include information on the personal milestones of their employees and families, such as birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, births, deaths, graduations, and retirements. Individuals may be recognized for becoming employee of the month or year, as well as for achieving exemplary safety or attendance records. Newsletters can also welcome new employees and praise veteran workers for earning promotions.

Company news: Firms should not neglect to report on their own milestones, such as achieving safety, sales, and processing records, or receiving awards from consumers or community groups. Has the company made any noteworthy plant changes or upgrades, purchased any new equipment, or acquired new operations? Perhaps the firm has improved its administrative processes by purchasing new computers or changing some procedures, such as how employee time sheets are handled. News about company athletic teams can be included, as can reports about the company's charitable donations and its work within the community, such as offering tours to students, sponsoring local events, or assisting with neighborhood recycling drives. Some companies also share financial data with employees through their newsletters.

Industry news: To help employees learn about the larger scrap market—and understand their company's place in it—some newsletters include economic and market news, legislative reports, as well as articles on quality and safety issues, often reprinted from trade journals, newspapers, and other industry sources. (Many publications will grant reprint permission as long as the material is attributed and will be used for educational or noncommercial purposes.)

Some companies also profile their suppliers and consumers, which not only serves as good corporate relations but helps employees better understand how—and with whom—the company conducts business. For extra pizzazz and to fill extra space, some newsletters feature cartoons, artwork, and other articles of general interest.—K.K.