Newsletter or "E-Zine"

Recently, I began converting the Flicka Friends files (Microsoft Publisher) into Adobe Acrobat PDF files. Hopefully, all of the back issues can be converted over the next year or so. This conversion does a number of things. For those not familiar with Acrobat, it is a software program that allows creating a file that anyone with Adobe Acrobat Reader can view. Since the reader is free and can be downloaded from the internet, it is a perfect medium for Flicka Friends. The software also reduces the overall file size to manageable levels. A ten page issue of Flicka Friends (with images) can easily reach 15-20 MB, a size that would prohibit all but the most interested Flicka Friends from downloading the file. Acrobat files are approximately 10% of the original file size and at approximately 1 MB, they can be easily downloaded to your hard drive and opened with Adobe Acrobat Reader. There are several advantages to sending Flicka Friends via the internet instead of through the U.S. Mail. First, the issue that arrives on your computer is an original full color issue and NOT a black & white photocopy. You can print the newsletter at your home and replace it in the event a wave damages the newsletter. There are a number of advantages from the editor’s point of view. The time required to take the newsletter to a printer (twenty miles away) and a second trip to pick it up, followed by folding the newsletter, adding the postage, sealing the newsletter for mailing and applying the address label takes time. I really don’t mind those tasks that much, but sending the newsletter via the internet eliminates all of those steps. The final benefit may be in the form of cost. Since the printing and postage expenses have been eliminated, Flicka Friends can be created and mailed with very little cost. Instead of charging $10.00 per year, the newsletter can now be sent out free of charge. Hopefully, this will result in an increase in the total number of Flicka owners on the subscription list. To insure privacy, the e-mail message containing the subscription list will be sent as “bcc” or “blind” copy. This eliminates all of the other e-mail addresses from the address area except for the person who is receiving the e-mail.