The Sincerest Form
Do you read Frag!, our monthly newsletter? Our March issue marked the 80th incarnation of it, and while if you do the math that doesn’t add up to one a month since Shrapnel began it’s still six years and eight months worth of newsletter. That’s pretty good when you consider most newsletters tend to die off pretty quickly, or have a frequency of appearance equal to the Olympics.
One thing that I feel has always set it apart from the typical newsletter you get from other publishers is the fact that it’s more than just a regurgitation of press releases with some links. Of course it talks about recent news events, but it also (hopefully) entertains with its other content and casual tone.
The current format begins with a short editorial piece, then it goes into news and happenings at Shrapnel, then military history (this month’s piece is about military ballooning up to the Boer War), then other relevant content (maybe patch news, demo news, so forth), monthly specials at the Gamers Front, and finally a link of the month. It’s been like this for quite some time. Probably the newest addition is the editorial, but even that is at least a year and a half old by now.
Earlier this week I was pointed to another company’s recent newsletter. Seems somewhat amusingly familiar. Begins with a casual editorial introduction and then moves on to historical content. But oh wait, then goes into news. Ah, so that’s the difference.
Just sayin’… 