Company newsletters - online or in print?

Has the company newsletter become a casualty of the rising tide of social media content?

B-2-B  enterprises have traditionally used a newsletter, which in some cases evolved into a company magazine, as a means of keeping in touch with customers with updates on interesting recent projects, advances in technology, new products and general helpful information about the market. Because they were a cut above the hard sell mailer and  professionally produced, they had higher  retention value and also got passed on to work colleagues. For some clients the company newsletter became a victim of budget cuts with the rising cost of postage becoming a deciding factor.  Some have switched their efforts to email contact and to social media, but there is a difference.

Looking at the trade press as an example, many have simply placed the printed magazine online using page turning technology. However people I have talked to about this find it too small to read without enlarging the article and after a while can't be bothered. Worse still clients are concerned their advertisements will not get noticed and where the publisher has opted for a magazine designed for print but only published online, they have pulled their advertising. Some have abandoned print completely and designed for reading online embracing the use of video and links and at the same time creating other display advertising opportunities. The advertising manager of one publication that continues in print as well as providing an online version, told me that there is very little overlap between the two circulation lists implying two, possibly different, audiences.

Rather than replace company newsletters and magazines by abandoning print and moving  online only, newsletters  need to evolve into an authoritative, quality publication through the use of informative and useful content that is of value to the customer. As a 'keeping in touch' communication tool they are probably going to be  more effective and more likely to be read than an online only option which relies on the customer choosing to visit.  Why not also develop and re-purpose content into an online version to attract a new readership?

And by contrast to the quick flash, short lived news bites of social media fulfilling a very different marketing need.