I am curious to know what newsletters are very successful. I am
thinking of starting one and I would like to know in the healthcare
field in particular, which are considered successful. How are
newsletters priced? How many subscribes is considered "successful"?
Are newsletters moving from print to email? How many people does it
take to put together a great newsletter?

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Request for Question Clarification by serenata-ga on 20 Aug 2003 19:45 PDT

Hi Alabama ~

A 'successful' newsletter can be measured in many ways from the number
of subscribers to a measurable ROI (return on investment), dependant
on the purpose of the newsletter.

A successful newsletter may be one with half a million subscribers,
provided the newsletter is opened and read (whether it be email or in
print). Those numbers would mean nothing, though, if the open rate was
only 1 or 2 percent - especially to advertisers who would be expecting
a return on investment relative reaching half a million 'readers'.

Your question, as posed, is difficult to answer. Perhaps if you stated
what the purpose of the newsletter is, and what you hoped to
accomplish by publishing such a newsletter, you could get a more
definitive answer from any of our Google Answers Researchers.

Thanks,
Serenata

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Clarification of Question by alabama9-ga on 17 Sep 2003 14:15 PDT

I am interested in learning more about prestigous healthcare
newsletters aimed at consumers, like the Berkeley Health newsletter. 
I would like to know about award winning newsletters - how much they
cost, how many people are involved, etc.  There is also a newsletter
that goes out by VentureWire and I'd like to learn more about this
also.  Things I am interested in:

1.  how many subscribers do successful e-newsletters have?
2.  how much does it cost to produce a great e-newsletter?

I know these are very general questions, but I'm thinking of starting
a specialized healthcare newsletters for consumers and trying to
figure out what models are best to examine as I make this decision.

best kelly

Alabama --

You might want to look at Chris Pirillo's book on e-mail publishing to
see how one "modern" model works:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0966103254/103-4298772-4611841?v=glance

Pirillo runs a series of e-mail newsletters, which you can find at
http://www.lockergnome.com/

But he started with just one and has one person editing each of the
daily newsletters.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

Health care is a very broad field. You should start with the portion
you know very well, and do most of your own work, perhaps with some
associets who are knowlegeable and you can depend on to meet
deadlines. I would not think daily mailing is realistic to start. but
you could make daily up dates to your internet version. I would say
success is in sight if you make one dollar per hour (and increasing)
for the gross time invested after expences. Only tiny expansion is
wise until you reach that bench mark.  Neil