8.f)3) Spring Newsletter Meeting Date: 2/17/2009
Agenda Item: �' �'( 3
City Council Agenda Report
City of Scandia
14727 209`h St. North
Scandia, MN 55073 (651) 433-2274
Action Requested: Discuss the Spring issue of the city newsletter.
Deadline/ Timeline: Scheduled to be mailed approximately April 1.
Background: • The City publishes and mails a newsletter to all residents twice a
year on approximately April 1 and October 1 of each year. The
Spring edition includes an insert describing the city's recreation
programs for the coming summer.
• At the January 20 meeting, during the City Council discussion
regarding the legal newspaper, the Council encouraged staff to
work with the Country Messenger to explore ways that the
newspaper could be used to inform the public about Scandia news
even though they were not designated as the legal paper. Carter
Johnson from the Messenger suggested that they could find ways
for the City to save money, possibly on the City newsletter, which
then might be used to purchase advertising in the paper.
• I met with Carter Johnson to see if they could save the city time
and/or money on the newsletter. After exploring the issue, we
determined that the newspaper staff could probably not save much
city staff time or any money on the actually writing, editing or
layout of the newsletter.
� The Messenger does offer printing services, which we have been
purchasing from another firm. Their quote for printing the
newsletter is competitive; slightly more than our previous printer,
but less than budgeted. (We plan to change printers this year due
to quality problems.) They also provide for electronic
transmission, which will save time compared to the other printer,
and good turn-around time.
• The Messenger suggested that the city consider distributing its
newsletter as an insert to a special edition of the newspaper, which
they would distribute free to all residents in the Scandia zip code.
While this would save some compared to the cost of postage
(about $150)the city would still need to mail newsletters to the
approximately 500 (about 30% of the total) to Scandia residents
with Marine on St.Croix or Forest Lake zip codes.
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� I am very concerned that if the newsletter were distributed as an
insert to the newspaper, rather than a separate mailed piece with its
own identity, many residents would not see the newsletter or toss
it aside as they might with other advertising inserts. We already
hear coinplaints that residents didn't get or recognize their
newsletters, even though we are confident that the post office has
delivered it to them. Using two different distribution methods for
different parts of the community may add confusion among
residents about where to look for city information. If in the future
the Messenger decided not to do a free issue for whatever reason,
we would have to reiurn to mailing all the newsletters. Carter
Johnson suggested that the Messenger could run an advertisement
alerting residents to look for the city newsletter in their _
newspapers. However, this would only reach the relatively small
number who subscribe to the newspaper, and perhaps negate any
cost savings.
Recommendation: If the Council has ideas for topics for the Spring newsletter, I would
appreciate hearing those soon. The draft newsletter will need to be
prepared for your review at the March 17 meeting.
If the Council has input or direction regarding the printing and
distribution of the newsletter, that would also be timely. It is my
intent to use the Country Messenger for printing services, and to
distribute the newsletter to all Scandia households through the postal
service in the same manner as previous newsletters. The savings in
postage costs, in my opinion, do not outweigh the disadvantages that
may reduce the effectiveness of the newsletter as a communications
tool.
I understand that the Council is interested in supporting the Messenger
as a community newspaper. One way to do that appears to be using
their printing services. As the City needs other printing(such as
letterhead, envelopes, etc.) we will give them the opportunity to
provide the service,based on price and quality.
Attachments/ • None
Materials provided:
Contact(s):
Prepared by: Anne Hurlburt, Administrator
(newsletter)
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