It's people who make the news;

              it's PEOPLE
WHO MAKE THE NEWS
26
Once her nine-year-old has left for school, Joann pours a second cup of coffee and settles down with her copy in her sunny kitchen in Willowdale, Canada. Jim, Joann's husband, is in the Toronto Office of DPH&S.
John reads his copy as he waits for his wife in the shopping center in Pasa-dena, California. John is a principal in the H&S Los Angeles Office.
Linda reads hers on the sands of Con-dado Beach, Puerto Rico. She works as a secretary for H&S, San Juan.
What are they reading? Newsletters. In Toronto, its called For Your Info. In Los Angeles, there are two: Review Notes, a quarterly, and The Ledger, a bi-weekly. In San Juan Saludas de H.&S. San Juan is the name.
Joann reads her copy right through— from beginning to end. Even though she doesn't know all the people the newsletter mentions, she gets a chance to find out what's happening in her husband's office. John turns to the "Sports in Review" column to see what's new in the Lo-Ball Golf Asso-ciation. Who captured low gross aver-age this time around? A picnic is com-ing up for the San Juan Office. Linda checks the newsletter for the details.
The names — Joann, Jim, John and Linda — are fictitious. But the places and the newsletters are not. Incidents like these occur all the time, according to what thirteen H&S offices have told H&S Reports about their newsletters.
Maybe your office is publishing a newsletter. Maybe you are considering the possibility. Or maybe you hadn't
seriously taken up the idea. In any event, experience proves that a news-letter can be fun—fun to read and not bad fun to put together. An office pub-lication offers something to H&S people and their families that they can get in no other way—not by newspaper, TV or magazine because it tells them news of their own particular office and Firm. No bulletin board can offer such a full record of matters of interest. And San Juan reports another advantage of a newsletter: less memo sending.
Keith Dorricott, editor in the Cana-dian Head Office of DPH&S, says of For Your Info.: "Many people like the humorous parts. It entertains as well as informs." Duane Whitmarsh, editor of Houston Highlights, Says the office newsletter contributes to "high morale and team spirit." And the Philadelphia Office says its 'Newsline Seventy offers better infra-office communications.
Possibly the granddaddy of all H&S newsletters (first published in 1951 and then called 1620 News), Erie-Views in Cleveland gets an enthusiastic reception not only from staff and their families, but especially from H&S mem-bers in the armed forces.
For those offices ready to start a newsletter, with the blessing of their partners in charge, a good first step is to make contact with people in other offices that already have them. By get-ting your name on their mailing lists, you can see what others are doing. Those already in full-steam-ahead newsletter production may also find such an exchange can be helpful. News-
letters outside the Firm should not be overlooked. Maybe a friend receives a swinging publication that has a feature or a format which will give you ideas.
An office newsletter should meet the needs of that office. The San Juan Of-fice, for instance, publishes a bi-lingual newsletter; one column of each page is in English, the other in Spanish. San Juan's needs are unique.
The editorial staff of Carolina Chat-ter (Charlotte Office), sums up its edi-torial policy this way: "We have no specific features for every issue. We print our newsletter strictly for our peo-ple .. .We strive for new ideas for each issue to continue to make our news-letter interesting and appealing for our employees and their families."
News of people in the Firm and of their families is always good reading. It helps to know about new people on the staff. And who's engaged. Who was just married? What about transfers to other offices, alumni, former office members on foreign assignments?
Several offices report the success of such articles. Catherine Pitcock, edi-tor of the Financial Department (EO) Financially Speaking, says that the reg-ular feature covering such events as engagements and weddings is one of the first things that the people in the department look at.
Then there are after-work activities. It may surprise readers to learn that someone in the office races his Porsche every possible Sunday on. the sands of Bridgehampton, Long Island. Or that one of the tax men has a Yorkshire ter-