“When your church newsletter first was distributed, everyone read it. It had a few relevant, anticipated, useful pieces of information that more than made up for the time it took to read.
Over time, though, this newsletter, like all church newsletters, became filled with trivia. A column by the church librarian on the history of the steeple. Lists of which hymns were scheduled for next week. All sorts of information was included because it was easy, it was cheap, and at least some constituency within the church thought it was a good idea.
Over time, the newsletter gets longer. And less useful. Less relevant. Until one day it falls off each person’s radar. Not enough time in your day, too much clutter, maybe later.” - Seth Godin (Permission Marketing)
Does that quote strike a chord?
With anything you want to communicate, you have to make a choice: comprehensive or concise? And you can’t have it both ways. The former has more information, but the latter is more to the point. Most parish bulletins have gradually become the former ... which is decidedly less bulletin-like.
In an effort to have a little info for everyone, it’s ended up a lot of info for no one. They’ve become so cumbersome that few read them anymore. And if few read them, then they kind of lose their point.
97% of your parishioners are interested in about 10% of the info in your bulletin. But most of them don’t get that 10%. Why? Because the 10% they’d find interesting is buried in the other 90% that’s been included for the other 3% of parishioners. It makes no sense. Let those 3% check the website, make a quick phone call to a volunteer or use other means to get the additional info they need. Make your bulletin more concise and to the point. You will greatly increase the chances that most of your parishioners will get the most important information.
If anything, at least organize your bulletin with this in mind. Put the most important information on the front page, marked as such. And put everything else in the back somewhere.
Better yet, why not rethink the bulletin’s cover altogether? How many parish bulletins have the exact same redundant information on the front cover every single week? Yet, this is the one part that most parishioners are most likely to read before rolling it up and tossing it in the backseat. What a waste. Instead, think: magazine cover. Get their attention with something on the cover. Give them some fun, attention grabbing headlines each week that get across the basic announcements and that points them to page 3 for more info.
Additionally, make them anticipate the bulletin. Maybe start a short, intriguing story during the announcements after Mass, but don’t reveal the ending. Instead, include the exciting conclusion in the bulletin. Just give them something they will seek out. Something they look forward to reading each week.
Get creative. Make it fun. Motivate them to pick up the bulletin and read it. And most of all, make it easy for most people to get the most important information.
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Do you know of a church that has a bulletin “magazine” cover like you describe? I would like to get some new ideas!
In my opinion, bulletins should be available almost exclusively online. There is little reason to still be using paper. Just print a few copies for the people with no Internet access, and the rest of us can download it. With a good content management system, the parish web site can be kept more up to date as things change.
Great points - At our 1600 family parish, there’s no way to have a four page bulletin like what I grew up with in my town of 8,000 people. However, we’ve organized our 12 page, full color bulletin to be in distinct categories - parish events, faith formation, school ministry formation, etc. to help be more reader friendly. We also put pictures on the front cover and throughout the publication each week to encourage our parishioners to look and see who is “famous” this week. Check out www.stcharleskc.com/bulletin.php to see our last four. Before a parish begins to place photos in your bulletin/online, you will need to discuss your parish/diocesan policy on permissions to post photos online (especially of minors).
Sara, thanks for linking to your parish bulletin. I saved a copy to share with our trustees. Can I ask, how many do you print, and how do you do that without advertising? Thanks!
† In keeping liturgy as our main focus, our hospitality ministers hand our bulletin out after each mass. This way reduces distractions during mass, bulletins are not left in pews and parishioners are eager to get the bulletin as they are greeted again after mass. We also post our bulletin on our website http://www.stpatrickscottsdale.org and link to it on our Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/StPatrickScottsdale We change our cover for specific days and seasons such as Ash Wednesday, Lent, Advent, Christmas and Ordinary Time.
e gads, Sara 12 pages? NO WAY!
put it on line
there is NO way I’m going to carry home 12 pages
distinct categories
big deal
since I’m only interested in two or three, I will totally do without
Wow! I wish we had a bulletin of 12 pages. Ours is four pages with the front always being contact info for the church and the last page always devoted to ads. In between, the information is usually concise but at the same time implies (a bit correctly) a lack of vibrancy in our parish.
Wow, again! If only our parish had a website. Communication is…, well, uhm, needs upgrading.
@Carol - we need you or someone like you in NY.
Wait a minute….if the bulletins are short, what are people supposed to read during homilies?
What a shame fellow Catholics do not demand their diocesan newspapers AND their parish bulletins focus on matters of Eternal Value NOW, such as sound Bible teaching. The day after The Church is taken out of the world, and prior to the start of God’s wrath towards the world, volunteers will still be distributing bulletins after Mass, and Catholic dioceses will still be publishing their newspapers that contain mostly drivel and things of no lasting value,in God’s economy. It is pathetic. It does NOT have to be like that. Catholics, and our church leaders, disregard the Bible, using it only for “show”, when it suits their needs.
I agree with Don (NY) that “Communication is…, well, uhm,” in need of upgrading - But I believe it’s communication from the Holy Spirit to our Roman Catholic Church leaders/clergymen that needs help, so they can equip the Catholic faithful to be disciples, and in matters of importance.
Mary Ann, we print 1000 copies a week - and we’re looking at cutting that number down to 750 as well. We do have ads on the back of the bulletin, but they currently are not online on our website, but are on our bulletin company’s website.
Allie, a majority of our parishioners are over the age of 65 (it’s not uncommon to have 2 funerals a week at our parish). Many parishioners are computer literate, and others beg us to have paper copies of everything we send out. Our happy medium is to send out e-reminders when we post our bulletin online (on Saturday to remind people to go to Mass), and then pass them out to those who want them AFTER Mass so they can’t be reading the bulletin during Mass. Currently, we print enough bulletins for just over half off our congregation - and the rest are happy to get the information online. About once a month, Father will do a “teaser” during the announcement time of something that’s in the bulletin to encourage parishioners (and visitors) to read it.
I lide the formatof Little Flower in Reno, NV.(I am a visitor) because it includes a spiritual message from the priest and I often save them. Otherwise I do not see the need for a bulletin in this day of reduced budgets. Why waste the paper when all the important announcements are also made from the pulpit? People can take notes or check the website for a refresher.
Colleen
Pilot Bulletins has these color magazine cover bulletins for parishes in New England. Check it out at PilotBulletins.net
Have you see the Bulletins produced by Pilot Bulletins?
www.pilotbulletins.net
Kind of along the lines of what David Ancell was saying above, there is a great site called Our Catholic Neighborhood (http://www.ourcatholicneighborhood.com/) that I found with online bulletins. It doesn’t have any ads, which is nice, and in addition to every parish being listed for bulletins, staff, and Mass times, there are thousands of links to other websites. It’s a pretty sweet collection. I don’t know if it is what everyone was looking for, but maybe it is a start…
I think most parishes rely on the big bulletin publishing companies to handle their bulletins. Most of the problems you mentioned could be solved by parishes deciding to publish “in house.”
Good grief, it is 2011! Any recent high school graduate can use simple software to produce a better bulletin that the canned stuff you are getting now. So for production, I would go to the youth group or young adult group.
As far as selling ads to support the bulletin, I would recommend getting someone from the Knights of Columbus to handle it. They know the local business people and can take care of that end of it.
I used to sell ads for one of the big bulletin publishers and I can guarantee that nowadays almost any parish can do a better job themselves. Sure the big publishers have a lot of canned content that they can pump into the bulletin, but this is exactly the useless fluff that is driving away your readers.
Your parish is better off with a 2 page bulletin that everyone reads than a 12 page bulletin that everyone throws away.
It’s REALLY hard to generalize for all parishes on this issue. For some small parishes, that may be the case.
With 1600 families in our parish, even if we just had a four page bulletin, it would take a secretary several hours to print, copy, and manage the volunteers to fold the bulletin. Even if you have great volunteers to manage these reponsibilities, you still need to have a staff person to manage. With our very limited resources, it’s very well worth our time to make the printing and ad selling somebody else’s responsibility.
It boils down to content - how much does YOUR content spread the ways YOUR parish spreads the Good News of the Gospel? No two parishes spread the Gospel in preciously the same way, so how does one expect to have a bulletin that mirrors anyone elses?
As a result of these postings, I’ve switched to a magazine style cover with a table of contents on the front. I looked through a bunch of magazines and picked several that I thought did the style well. I’ve gotten some positive feedback. I only just started so I’m still refining the layout - http://www.stmarylittleton.org/bulletins/index.php
I’ve felt for a while that the main purpose of the bulletin is to give concise information in about parish events or important information in a timely and attractive manner. The pressure to add additional content or to begin advertising events months in advance is strong. This article will help me be strong!
Way to go, Jan! I love the quick, short (but still informative) headlines on the front page. Very nice. Thank you for sharing!
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