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The Newsletter or Church Magazine is an institution. Many churches publish one to keep people up to date with news and views and lists of duties. People, particularly those who are housebound, love their regular update of what’s going on in the church family. But can it be more than an insider’s contact point, as important as that is?

This leaflet provides hints and suggestions that may make your magazine more attractive to the regular reader and open up fresh opportunities for getting to a wider audience. The magazine can be a great asset in giving the church an identity and in providing a tool for evangelism.

 

the editor
 

An editor needs to be able to:

• communicate with readers in a simple straightforward way,

• have an eye for detail,

• know what is interesting for the readers
  and, perhaps,

• have a flair for writing and presentation.

 

Why not ask a family member, or a friend from outside the church to help you. There are plenty of people around who love spotting mistakes!
 

If you are the editor, the foremost task is to look out for things that are happening in the life of the church and finding people to write about them in an interesting way. Ask them to concentrate on one or two main aspects in, say, a couple of hundred words. They don’t need to cover everything. The other main task is to be a tactful editor and to be able to prune if necessary. Repetition, unless deliberate, is very dull and boring. Try to keep a balance to the content. A shorter interesting and well-written magazine is always better than a long dull one. Gather material all the time – if it’s non specific, keep it for the odd ‘filler’ when you are struggling to find material.
 

You might ask someone to ‘guest edit’ for one edition, with your help – one of your young people, for instance. Have you considered asking those involved in the uniformed organisations, or Pilots: carefully planned, the whole group could be involved and badges awarded. Or you might apply the same principle to the Friendship Club of older people, if you have one. They might offer an edition full of their memories of what your town was like twenty, thirty or forty years ago.
 

If you have a good printing system, use pictures for effect. Today most people relate better to pictures than a whole lot of words but they need to be carefully selected and be able to reproduce well.

Avoid clip-art as much as possible unless you have found unusual and imaginative examples. Too much clip-art clutters and cheapens what you are trying to do.

The biggest challenge is to try to set the tone of the publication by ensuring that it conveys the feeling of a spirit-filled Christian community rather than the social life of a leisure club.

 

You might try asking someone to provide some prayers for inclusion, or thoughts about a Bible reading, or comments from a sermon they have been challenged by.

 

Get to know your readership and ensure that the content addresses what’s important to them. However, the people who see the magazine can vary from those “inside” the congregation to a group of churches, an ecumenical association or to the whole of the surrounding community.
 

Always remember that this is a message from a local Christian presence and that it should reflect the faith and witness of the congregation.
 

Who contributes?

Not everyone is a first rate writer but most people with a bit of encouragement can provide good copy. Always remember to “Keep it simple!” This is not as easy as it sounds but there are a few tips that are worth remembering:

• Keep sentences short: don’t use two words when one will do.

• Make all verbs active (not “next week the service will be lead by...” but “the Revd John Smith will lead the service”).

• Use short memorable quotations from the spoken word to describe feelings or opinions.

• Keep paragraphs short – four or five sentences at most.

• Keep all articles to 100-200 words. Most readers will skip reading anything longer.

• Keep it personal – news about people is always the most interesting.

• Use material provided by agencies to cover such topics as famine relief and then say what is being done locally.

• Be aware of the time lag between writing and publication - out of date news makes dull reading.
   

The look of it....
 

The cover. This can be more contentious than anything else. Some churches maintain the same cover for every edition. Some try to fit all sorts of information about their church on the first sheet, with Mission Statements, addresses and directions of how to get to the church, a picture of the building, and the times of the buses. You might try having a single image on the cover with the name of the church. You might change the image for each edition – a good idea if you want to attract attention. The aim of a cover is to make your readers be intrigued enough to open the magazine and read it. Why not put a short list of the main articles on the cover. If you have always used colour paper, why not try a white cover. The same can be said for the back cover – usually reserved for a list of contactable people in the church or a list of duties. A striking image on the back cover – or an amusing one – can be an invitation to revisit the rest of the magazine. It’s good sometimes to be controversial.

 

Layout
 

Some basic rules:

• Use wide margins and generous line and paragraph spacing. Start new articles on a fresh page (an odd quarter page can be used for a cartoon/illustration or a notice).

• The look of the page can be varied by using bold type, italics, or different point sizes not a collection of type faces. Some type faces are not easy for everyone to read! Try using ‘Times New Roman’, ‘Helvetica’, ‘Arial’, or ‘Garamond’ – but there are many more.

• Don’t always stick to one column a page – try two or a mix. Do not “cut and paste” from a variety of sources – it always looks a mess and is a real turn-off for the reader!

• Most home computers now have packages which are designed specifically for layout work.

Does size matter?

 

An A5 booklet is user-friendly. However an A4 page can provide more scope for imaginative layout and artwork.

 

And finally ...

Copyright applies to material reproduced in church magazines under the same law as anywhere else. Until the author has been dead for 70 years permission must be sought before reproducing it. It may be expensive. You can use a short extract of about 30-40 words without express permission but an acknowledgement of the author and source should be given. Christian Copyright Licensing have a licence (CLA Church Licence) which can help.

 

Visit their website www.ccli.co.uk for details.

 

 

 

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