Jennie Stuart to debut newsletter next month

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Jennie Stuart Medical Center will soon start distributing a glossy four-page newsletter each month, spotlighting successful procedures and available services.

“We believe the public will learn something new every issue,” said James Goss, Jennie Stuart’s marketing director. As editor, Goss will write some articles himself and assign others to freelancers.

Each issue will feature at least two patients. The first edition, which is headed to the printing press, tells the stories of a cancer survivor and a woman who had complications while giving birth. Hospital personnel saved her life, Goss said.

Goss had success with similar newsletters in his marketing at other hospitals. He shared samples of those when he interviewed here in 2011.

“The management team here liked what they saw,” he said.

When Jennie Stuart requested bids from publishers, 12 or 14 firms responded. Pacesetter Printing, which the New Era company owns, submitted the best price, Goss said.

Chip Hutcheson, publisher of the Times Leader, which is also owned by the New Era, helped with writing and editing on the first issue. He hopes to pass those duties on to other Pacesetter employees, he said.

Feb. 20 marks the 100th anniversary of Jennie Stuart’s founding, and the company has an updated logo and a new slogan corresponding to that milestone. They will debut in the newsletter’s first issue. The company is also waiting to announce the newsletter’s name.

Pacesetter designed the newsletter, using Jennie Stuart’s specifications for colors and its new logo, Hutcheson said.

It will come as an insert in the New Era and nine other local newspapers. It will measure 11 inches by 10 inches — oversize sheets.

“We’d like that to stand out among other free-fall inserts in the paper,” Goss said.

Pacesetter will print 85,000 copies a month. Jennie Stuart will also distribute an email version.

The publication will also contain letters. And it will have news and information on a broad spectrum of services: inpatient services at the hospital, clinical services at the Eagle Way Campus and the offices of the Fairview Physicians Network.