Tarrant County College

A NEWSLETTER REVOLUTION: FROM PAPER TO DIGITAL

CHALLENGE: In the early 2000s, printed publications were standard for organizational news and information, with digital communication in its infancy. For Tarrant County College, this promising technology provided an opportunity to refresh our printed employee newsletter, increase engagement, and distribute news more frequently. As the public information coordinator for TCC, I served as the editor and writer. An initial survey showed employees were hesitant about reading a newsletter online, so I implemented a two-year transition moving from a publication printed every two months to a pdf sent via email to a weekly digital newsletter. I also centralized the four independent campus newsletters. 

OUTCOMES: The result was one publication serving as the source of truth for district employees, dissemination of timely information, and more visual appeal (from black and white to color), the ability to track metrics through surveys and open rates, and a reduction in design and printing costs of $20,000 a year. A savings needed to support a 19.4% growth in enrollment, strained by a $410,000 decrease in state funding. In a post-digital launch survey, 82.2% of employees said they "loved" TCC This Week. Though I left the college in 2005, the digital newsletter remained until 2009. A report by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board named the TCC electronic newsletter as an example of public higher education institutions demonstrating good stewardship of state funds by streamlining operations without harming their mission and enabling the reallocation of financial and staff savings to higher priority programs.