The New Executive Newsletter: More Details

One of the issues we have been working on is how the newsletter(s) will be delivered and read by our members. We have opted to go with something a little different for a steel publication. Interaction is an important element in what we do on a daily basis and we want to provide our members as much stimulation as possible. At the same time, some people don’t like much change.  So, we are going to work with both sides (with a little give).

You will receive your newsletter in your email on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday evening as we have been doing since the beginning. The newsletter has been redesigned with our new branding which looks like this:

As I mentioned above our desire is to provide a more complete experience for our members. The newsletter you receive in your inbox will be an invitation to interact with Steel Market Update and our new website.

So, when you get the newsletter you will get the headlines and then the articles similar to what we are doing now. The entire article will not be included in the email newsletter. Instead we will provide a teaser paragraph which looks something like this:

When you click on either one of the headlines at the top or on the “read more” link at the end of the teaser paragraph you will be directed to our new website. The first time you arrive you will be asked to login. After that, as long as you are using the same computer, you will not need to login again. At that point all you will need to do is click on the “Read Full Text” in the newsletter header (see above) and you will be reading the newsletter just like you are doing now.

The newsletter on the new website will transform itself into the website itself. What we mean by that is best explained with a visual:

Now the items in the right hand navigation – especially the buttons (Steel Pricing Momentum, Sentiment Meter, etc.) will look different for members than the public who will be accessing the website. I will leave that alone for the moment and it will become self evident the first time you login. 

Not everyone likes to interact with news, data and information the same way. So, we are providing options in our new site. We believe that over time a majority of our members may actually prefer to interact with our website and to read the “news” as it is happening as opposed to on a schedule. 

You see, as we write articles in both the day and night they are then put into queue, are edited and then they sit until we put out a newsletter. Well, in reality business continues and things happen each and every day. So, why don’t we publish the articles as they are produced? Those who are interested in reading the news at all hours of the day and night are going to love this. 

Other readers prefer to read news about certain pieces of data.  Some of our customers only want to read articles about pricing.  Others are looking for market trends or news about specific industries. We will have something for you. I will write more about real time publishing with you in more detail soon (we are still working out some of the “bugs”). 

Oh, one more thing. I am going against the votes (one) which poured in when I mentioned that my photo was going away at the bottom of the newsletter. Time to grow up and act my age and share the stage. SMU started as a one man company. Now we are a ten person team.