3.5. SR 10-01-2007REQUEST FOR ACTION
To Item Number
Ci Council 3.5
Agenda Section Meeting Date Prepared by
Consent October 1, 2007 Tina Allard, Ci Clerk
Item Description Reviewed by
Confirmation of Newsletter Format for 2008 Budget Lori ohnson, Ci Administrator
Reviewed by
Action Requested
Confirmation that Council is okay with the newsletter funding line item from the Mayor and CouncIl
budget and staff can move forward with work on outsourcing the city newsletter, The Current.
Background/Discussion
At the August 13, 2007 woxksession, the Council reviewed the Administration Department budget. One
item discussed was the city newsletter. The memo that was previously distributed to Council regarding
costs for the newsletter is attached. In order to keep on schedule with the newsletter, we would need to
begin work this month fox the January 2008 edition. The template would need to be set up in October
with newsletter articles being due from staff in November.
Financial Impact
In attached memo
Attachments
^ Memo to Lori Johnson dated August 1, 2007
Action Motion by _ Second 6y _ Vote
Follow Up
S:\Co~ncil\Clcrk\Newsletter Updaze.doc
MEMORANDUM
TO: Lori Johnson, City Administrator
FROM: Tina Allard, City Clerk
DATE: August I, 2007
SUBJECT: Mayor and Council Budget
City Newsletter-$ 16,000
I would like Council to consider outsourcing the newsletter by hiring Prime Advertising and
Design. Prime currently compiles and distributes the Elk River Community Resource and
Resident's Guide. They also put together newsletters for the cities of Maple Grove and
Champlin. Samples axe attached. Prime is an independent publisher and can limit the content
of advertisers more than the city would be allowed to do.
Prime would cover half the printing costs in the beginning. The city would need to cover the
other half, which would be $1,774 per issue ($7,096 for the year). Prime has stated they may
be able to cover all this cost depending on the success of their ad campaign. If this is the
case, the $16,000 in the budget may possibly drop to about $9,000.
^ Two color
^ Full color
^ 4 pages (bi-monthly 6 tunes a year) 12 pages (quarterly with the change of seasons)
^ Inserted in Star News ^ Distributed directly to resident's mailboxes
^ Staff time to create newsletter ^ Designer would handle the pxepaxadon and
(approx. 1 week) bulk mail distribution
Disadvantages of Current Setup
^ Staff articles have to be edited ox cut completely out due to limited space
^ Newsletter can get lost in the paper with all the other inserts
^ May not be reaching all residents. (I have lived at my currrnt F.lk River residence for about
eigbtyears and only startedgetting the Star News this.cpring.J
Advantages of Proposed Option
• Directly delivered to mailboxes of residents
^ Promote economic development of community due to advertising (some may also
consider the ads a con)
S:\Clerk\Budget\2008VvIemo to Lori for CC.doc
^ Allows more articles with further detailed content
^ Promotes a more professional image of the city
^ Incteased, direct communications to residents
^ Promotions: Prime would do promotions such as photo contests and handle all the
work related to it.
Website Updat -$4,000
The Website Co ttee has been meeting during 2007; to discuss a re-design of the website.
The current website as created sometime in 2002. S~ ce this time our web hosting
company has added m features to their original oftwaxe that would help with better
organization of our curre site. Plus, the city ha added hundreds of pages to the site that
need to be reconfigured int n easier to use, stomex friendly format. Our objective is to
have a visually appealing, uncl tered, mox xganized design. We also want to have better
representation of the Elk River b nd. A ached is a sample of what the committee is striving
to achieve for the site (this is just a o up model of what the committee is striving toward).
Some website statistics
There axe apptoxunately 10,000 sitors to site viewing an average of 48,000 pages each
month. The pages that tend t e visited the ost axe the employment, parks and recreation,
and the directory sections.
City Code-$1,000
We axe currently ou of stock on our code books and n ed to order additional copies. They
cost about $200 e h. The books axe typically given to ne department/division heads when
they start empl ment with the city.
S:1CIerklBudget~20081Memo to Lori for CC.doc