NEWSLETTER

informal publication, often simple in format and crisp in style, that provides special information for a defined audience. Newsletters are ordinarily but not always issued regularly. They offer varieties of personal journalism and seldom carry advertising. Forerunners of modern newsletters were the corantossingle-page collections of news items from foreign journals. They were circulated by the Dutch early in the 17th century, and English and French translations were published in Amsterdam. In the English American colonies, the Boston News-lettercredited also as the first American newspaperappeared in 1704. Roger W. Babson of Massachusetts introduced an investment advisory letter in 1904, and the Whaley-Eaton Report began in 1918. Circulation of modern newsletters varies from the modest numbers of free letters of small voluntary organizations to the hundreds of thousands achieved by subscription newsletters like The Kiplinger Washington Letter, begun in 1923 by Willard M. Kiplinger. Typical of many is the weekly Latin American Reports, started in London in 1967. Common topics covered in newsletters include business and the professions, energy, health, safety, and travel. Corporations often issue newsletters for internal communication; nonprofit organizations issue them for their members. The wide availability of the typewriter, of cold type, and of fast and economical offset printing that reproduces camera-ready text and art contributed to the rapid growth of newsletters in the 20th century, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. The use of direct mail and the development of specialized mailing lists proved important for subscription letters. Word-processing systems and electronic delivery were applied to expedite production and improve timeliness. By the late 20th century more than 100,000 different newsletters were issued in the United States. The Newsletter Association of America was founded in New York City in 1977; renamed the Newsletter Association in 1982, it organized a chapter in London in 1983. Newsletters enjoy the economy of publishing for a limited and defined market. They often offer inside information, advice, and forecasts. The Newsletter on Newsletters began in 1964. Publishing Newsletters (1982), by Howard Penn Hudson, illustrates a variety of designs and includes a glossary.