Hi Chelsea,
We measure them in a few different ways:
Newsletter: Currently each article is built on an individual URL so we can see page visits and average read time for the articles. Unfortunately, we can’t see email open rates as we send it through Synergetic, however I believe the article URL landing page counts are a good indicator of engaged readers.
Biannual community magazine: Goes to old scholars, parents, staff. Digital version is displayed through Issuu (online flipbooks) which gives us really good metrics, and print version is measured on print numbers only (people can unsubscribe if they want) and anecdotal feedback.
Yearbook: Largely anecdotal as it is only in hard copy, however a recent community survey allowed us to ask about satisfaction regarding the yearbook. The more I speak with our community, the more I hear things like ‘I love reading it cover to cover’ or ‘I’m missing the Year XXXX copy, do you have a spare for my set?’ etc, which is always nice.
Community survey: The School conducted a community-wide survey that asked about many things, including satisfaction and engagement with various communication channels such as the yearbook, the biannual magazine and the newsletter. This allowed us to have reliable metrics and has been used as a good indicator of success from a publications perspective.
Also interested to see what others are doing!
Gabbi Agnew (from Amelia’s account!)