[Editors] Research about paper vs electronic newsletters?

[Catherine Avril]

Hi Jean,

You've pressed one of my hot buttons!  Although I can't cite specific 
research results for you, I could certainly offer MUCH anecdotal 
evidence for the value of print.  In fact, a professor I was chatting 
with at a holiday party yesterday afternoon told me he hates to see 
everything going electronic -- he much prefers paper versions so that 
he can put them in his briefcase to read.

You might actually find some interesting research done by the people 
who have created the paperless book -- the kind to which you're 
supposed to download the reading material.  I think those have not 
been terribly successful because we need the tactile experience that 
you don't get with a monitor.  Also, people like print because you 
can read it easily anywhere and we want the sense that the 
information or experience is more lasting, whereas electronic 
versions strike us as more ephemeral.  We'd like to think that we'll 
be able to find what we're looking for again when we need it.  We 
also want to be able to leave print publications out for various 
reasons, including so that others can see them (coffee table 
syndrome).  And I suspect that those who do fundraising could 
certainly speak about the great value of "leave-behinds" with donor 
prospects.

I believe we should all aspire to have high quality print that has 
value in and of itself, but that ALSO drives people to the web.  You 
can't be sure that people will really "receive" what you send them 
electronically (overloaded inboxes lead to e-newsletters being 
ignored), whereas perhaps there's a slightly greater chance that 
people will at least glance at the paper version when it passes 
through their hands.  They may even set it aside to look at later -- 
what are the chances of that with electronic information?

I think that many people in communications have done a fairly good 
job using print to point people to the web, and that blend of 
print/electronic communications seems to make a great deal of sense 
for a number of reasons, including tight budgets.  This approach 
still has a lot of room for improvement, however, because it's not 
really enough to use paper simply to announce a URL.  There needs to 
be some sense conveyed about value added in going to the web site, 
and not just the idea that the electronic version has replaced the 
paper version.  Another area that we have not yet figured out nearly 
as well is how to leverage the electonic media to point people to 
particular print products.  I'd like to see integrated communications 
approaches that get the two media to work hand-in-hand.

Just some ruminations on my part . . . I look forward to other 
comments and pointers to research, too!  Thanks for bringing up the 
subject, Jean.

Cheers,
-- Catherine
___________________________________________________________

Catherine Avril, Director of Communications
MIT School of Engineering
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 1-207
  Cambridge, MA  02139     USA
tel: 617.253.9411   fax: 617.253.8549
http://mit.edu/engineering


>Hi editors,
>
>As an editor of the Academic Computing Insider newsletter, and in light
>of the current budget situation here at MIT, I'm becoming concerned
>about the survival of newsletters in paper format.  I believe we will
>soon have to justify why we aren't just publishing on the Web or via
>e-mail.  I believe that there are a significant number of readers who
>prefer paper, but I have no proof of this and would like to have this
>confirmed (or not) before I try to fight this fight.
>
>Does anyone on this list know of any current research done about the
>value of publishing newsletters in paper format, comparisons of how
>people prefer to read such materials, or even surveys done on campus
>that would be relevant to this issue?
>
>I would even welcome a discussion about this issue on the list.
>
>(I feel like a bit of a lurker on this list since I have never made it
>to one of your meetings since they conflict with my regular staff
>meeting.  I do hope to make it to an editor's meeting soon since we've
>just rescheduled the staff meetings!)
>
>-jean-
>
>-------------------------------------
>Jean Foster
>Team Leader, Academic Computing Support
>617.253.3909, jfoster at mit.edu, N42-040F
>_______________________________________________
>Editors mailing list
>Editors at mit.edu
>http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/editors
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