Do any of you actually read your company newsletter?

Or perhaps when it's delivered to your desk, you quickly stash it in your briefcase, making a mental note to take it out and savour it over the weekend, whilst lying in bed relaxing. Or perhaps you discreetly shove it in the bin when no-one's looking. Judging by some recent newsletters I've seen, the latter scenario is definitely the most likely.

Who cares?

I mean, who really cares that Joe in delivery is getting married, or that Cindy has just had her fourth baby - doesn't she know what causes it more likely?

Yes, these items do have a place in a newsletter but not whole pages with pics perhaps.

And then there's the articles submitted by staff, which, whilst these can be entertaining, three pages on how much beer a guy can drink and how he loves his motorbike alongside a full page pic of a guy in despatch, can be a waste of a forest or two. And another two pages on boring Bronwyn's spiritual climb up Kilimanjaro, along with happy digital snaps and a day-by-day account of how this almost wrecked her relationship with her boyfriend, is enough to make a grown up groan...

Gripping stuff

Let's also not forget the Chairman/CEO/Director's message. This can and often does turn into a mini pep talk (wagging finger included) to the staff - morale booster, you say?

And then in between we hear how sales are going in every town and province, what advertising was placed and where and how the squash league is coming along... gripping stuff.

So how can a newsletter be made interesting? First, find a person who can and will take on the responsibility of co-ordinating this - preferably someone who can write, perhaps from the communications department.

Find out

And then get them to find out just what you all want to read about.

Remember, there have to be some interesting stories in your company - maybe some staff are involved in great volunteer work and deserve a pat on the back and, surely, with most of you being involved in media, there has to be a few good humour writers out there. And you can (legally) take certain stuff off the Internet - with appropriate credits - and use that to spice up blank pages.

Of course, you're now thinking it's easy for her to say - she's an experienced writer, which, although some may want to dispute, it's true. But at least with a team effort and input from the staff, you may actually get a few pages of news and articles that you might actually want to read. Maybe even print this out and leave it on your boss's desk and see if they get the message...

By the way, all the above examples were from major company newsletters!