Average/best length of newsletter article?

[wongword at ozemail.com.au]

As has already been mentioned some journals specify and insist on a certain 
number of words.

If you're managing your own newsletter there are 2 considerations. Firstly 
if it doesn't fit on one page then you rely on people to turn to another 
page for the remaining text. I have heard it said that many US popular 
magazines work this way. That is the article starts a the front then all the 
articles are finished at the end of the magazine. That is not the Australian 
way and has apparently proven to be unpopular here.

Another consideration is to think how long it takes people to read an 
article. I don't have my reading counts here at home but you might think of 
it in terms of  "Can I get someone to take x minutes to read about this? "

The placement of the article near longer or shorter article also , 
presumably influences whether you will get read.

Irene Wong
Publishing Manager

> As long as it needs to be to cover the material.
>
> I like to get way down into the greasy dirty details and backstories --
> the in-depth stuff that isn't available in a commercial newspaper.  If
> it comes to more than 1000 words, well, that's why God invented
> serialization.
>