Newsletters for hobby groups

[iris lilies]

As one of my plant societies struggles with written communications, I want the group to consider moving to a digital newsletter distributed to email addresses rather than the cumbersome printed glossy publication that no one seems to be able to produce.

What is your experience with newsletter software? Have any of you produced the newsletters? what software do you use? What are your experiences in producing these newsletters?

[KayLR]

I wish I had ten bucks for every newsletter I've put together...

For many years now I have used Microsoft Publisher, saving the publication as a pdf, then emailing to members and/or uploading it to the parent institution's website.

Now Microsoft is stopping support for Publisher in October 2026, so I have been training myself to use Canva, a web-based application. Unfortunately, it is very template-driven which I don't like, but I cannot afford --neither can the organizations I do these for---a spendy program like Adobe InDesign. Loved InDesign and used it at the newspaper, but it is really expensive.

Another place I know of...and I may suggest this for one of my groups... uses MailChimp. It's not badly priced. You don't get a pdf to attach to emails, to print, or to upload, but a clickable, linkable email of stories. No doubt you have received newsletters like this in your inbox.

Google has some desktop publishing applications, but I haven't looked at them very closely.

[iris lilies]

Thank you for this info Kay. Mail chimp is the one I’ve heard most about. I know Canva is the new guy on the block.

I don’t personally want to learn any of this, but we’re going to have to find a way for our regional Iris group to communicate.

[catherine]

I've done a couple of things in Canva, but I don't find it too intuitive, either. Plus I experience decision overload on it, with their thousands of templates.

OTOH, I am very knowledgeable and experienced in Powerpoint, but that's not a newsletter platform.

The closest thing that I have experience with and can relate your need to is Substack. You could have a defined subscriber list. I don't know what kind of content your organization publishes. Not sure it will work for you--just throwing it out there. It's very user-friendly.

[littlebittybobby]

okay-----there is a newsletter forthcoming for the HBCC, Vol. 1, Issue 1, that will be in member's boxes sometime, some day. I don't mean "mail box", i am referring to "cardboard box". But yeah----there will be glossy photos of interesting stuff that get catts attention. Yup. Hope thatt helps you some. Thankk mee. Yup.

[iris lilies]

I've done a couple of things in Canva, but I don't find it too intuitive, either. Plus I experience decision overload on it, with their thousands of templates.

OTOH, I am very knowledgeable and experienced in Powerpoint, but that's not a newsletter platform.

The closest thing that I have experience with and can relate your need to is Substack. You could have a defined subscriber list. I don't know what kind of content your organization publishes. Not sure it will work for you--just throwing it out there. It's very user-friendly.

Hmmmm, I never thought of substack for this use. I don’t know, I don’t see Substack articles with traditional newsletter, types of headings and banners and etc.. I also have no idea how it would manage email addresses, and don’t people have to sign up and into a Substack account the first time? I know I have a Substack account, I login. we can’t ask our members to do that.

[catherine]

Hmmmm, I never thought of substack for this use. I don’t know, I don’t see Substack articles with traditional newsletter, types of headings and banners and etc.. I also have no idea how it would manage email addresses, and don’t people have to sign up and into a Substack account the first time? I know I have a Substack account, I login. we can’t ask our members to do that.

Yeah, I know. I just threw that out there, but I also don't think it's the right fit for you.

[iris lilies]

Yeah, I know. I just threw that out there, but I also don't think it's the right fit for you.

our audience is old people. Old cranky people.

the old cranky people will scream and yell if/when we discontinue a bulletin, a printed glossy thing, but yet no one has been able to produce one in more than two years. No one has stepped forward to say “hey I really want that printed bulletin and so I’m going to see that it is produced. “

We will also have people scream and yell that a percentage of our members, probably 5%, do not “do “email.

I can’t accommodate that. I’m not going to print copies of the newsletter and mail it to them. Even as far back as 10 years ago, I stopped accepting memberships in the Lily Society from people who did not have email. There’s no point in them “joining “because we communicate exclusively via email.

I am a hard nosed bitch.

So many of these hobby groups are grappling with moving from printed communication products to digital products. I like the compromise position, which to me is this: if you insist on having a printed newsletter, we will print it and mail it to you, but your membership will cost more.