If part of your job is sending out a newsletter for other employees or publishing the company newspaper, you know that choosing a title for the publication can be trickier than it sounds.
Sure, you could just call it X Company Newsletter or Y Department News, but those names hardly command attention or stand out in flooded email inboxes. A title sets a tone, and if you’re going to be using that title repeatedly, you have to decide what tone your publication should convey. Because readers use the newsletter name when discussing content, you’ll want the name to reflect positively on your company’s image in their minds. You also need your employees to actually read the content, so you need a title that is inviting. Employees will be more likely to continue reading each issue if the title and content make them feel like they’re truly a part of a community of readers.
Content Type
Consider first what type of content is in your publication. Is it primarily informative? If so, you’ll want the title to emphasize the information-driven content with a serious tone. Keep it simple and direct. Some examples include:
- The Advisor
- The Insider
- Just the Facts
If the newsletter is more of an informal publication for employee issues or entertainment, it can be more relaxed. Perhaps the content is mostly about employee volunteering, so the title is Helping Hands. Maybe the newsletter features perspectives from different workers, so it’s called Employee Voice. Other examples include:
- Talk Back
- In Touch, In Tune
- The ___ Company Family Album
Newsletters may also have an attitude-driven or goal-setting tone; that is, they can be meant to get employees on the same page (no pun intended) and create a positive attitude throughout the office. If this is the angle of your publication, choose a name that suggests solidarity and direction. Each of these are on the right track:
- The Compass
- The Lineup
- Roadmap to Success
Perhaps the only determinant of your publication is how often you produce it. In that case, you’ll likely have a mix of information, employee-driven content, and goals in your articles, so it doesn’t make sense to title the whole newspaper after any particular type. Instead, try a frequency-based name. This is a classic way to name publications, such as Newsweek and USA Today. You could try:
- Weekly Rundown
- The Monthly Monitor
- The Quarterly Tracker
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Information-Driven
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Employee-Driven
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Frequency-Driven
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Goal-Setting
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If you’re unsure what type of content you’re likely to produce, brainstorm a list of articles for a couple of issues and determine which category most of it fits into. For more examples of information-driven, employee-driven, attitude/goal-driven, and frequency-driven newsletter names, visit this web page:
Wordplay
Once you’ve decided what kind of tone you need to set, you still have many options to consider. Even if you want a serious title, you can still choose one that fits your company and industry, or perhaps even your location. You may want to play off the title of your local newspaper, adding or changing a word or two so that it makes sense with your business. If you’re in Chicago, for instance, and your company name rhymes with “sun,” you might name your newspaper, The Brunn Times. You may work at a pet shop and have a local paper called The Journal Courier, so you choose to call your publication, The Journal Furrier.
Puns like this are often popular among employees, as they provide a management-sanctioned chuckle amidst the regular daily grind (Daily Grind—another punny title for a coffee shop newsletter). Brainstorm some words with double meanings in your industry and combine them with parts of the examples above until you find something you like. Here are some ideas to get your blood pun-ping:
- The Monthly Hairald (for a salon or haircare product company)
- The Tribloom (for a flower shop)
- The Weekly Teller (for a bank)
A similar route is naming your newsletter after a popular idea or phrase within your industry (and perhaps including a pun). Think about clichés you might not use in marketing material but that would still make insiders smile. Also consider phrases your employees use within their daily routines. You can do this with famous movie quotes, as well. Some examples:
- The Beat (music)
- Cruiser (automotive)
- The Honor Roll (education)
Sometimes rhyme and alliteration are great ways to catch your readers’ eyes in a creative newsletter title. You can do this with all or part of your company name, your department name, or with industry words and phrases. Here are some often-used alliterative titles:
- Bits and Bytes
- The Daily Download
- Smoke Signals
Finding a rhyme that fits with your business might be a bit more difficult, unless you’re lucky enough to work somewhere called Gold Coast and call your newspaper, Gold Coast Post. If that’s not the case, put your company name or email in here, and this tool will generate some rhyming or alliterative ideas for you using your company domain.
You might decide to play off of your company name in other ways. Sometimes a company name lends itself to backwards spelling, which creates a nice new word to include in a newspaper title. Perhaps you could rearrange the letters in another order to make words or phrases, then wait to see if your readers realize the logic behind your title.
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Insurance |
Financial |
IT |
Law |
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Food |
Medical |
Media |
Beauty |
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Music |
Automotive |
Real Estate |
Education |
To see more punny ideas, wordplay, and industry-specific creative titles, click these links:
- https://thrivehive.com/creative-newsletter-names/
- https://www.poppulo.com/ic/creative-employee-newsletter-names/
- https://graphicdesign.stocklayouts.com/2013/09/09/newsletter-names-titles-design-ideas/
Concepts
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Combine industry words on the left with a news noun on the right to create a relevant title. |
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Besides these lighthearted methods, you may decide you want a serious name, but not one that sounds too old or like a traditional newspaper. After all, if your company is young—or your employees are—such a name is likely not going to fit your style. Instead, take words like “trends,” “insider,” “word,” and “note,” and add phrases from your company or market to make a relevant title. You might like:
- Accounting Trends
- Market Insider
- Retail Notes
Conceptualizing your newsletter as a place for employees to stop by may help generate a name and a casual vibe. Combine “corner,” “hub,” or “station” with
an industry word for a quick name fix. Try it with almost any place word you can think of—as long as it’s a place your employees will enjoy imagining.
Thinking of your newsletter as a supportive person or group of people can also be helpful. This is especially true if your main goal is to provide resources to your employee readership. In that case, you can call the publication a “doctor,” “coach,” or “mentor.” You could also use the words, “advice” or “center” to suggest more than one person.
Your newsletter may be focused on providing expert wisdom. If so, name it after the type of knowledge shared or the person sharing it.
- Motherly Insight
- HR Report
- Therapist’s Thoughts
In a similar vein, use words like “edge” and “forecast” to suggest to readers that your newsletter contains innovative knowledge and leadership tips for your field. Similar words that work are:
- Vision
- Point
- Advance
Action, Audience, and Benefits
As obvious as it may seem, you may want to name your newsletter to reflect the goals of the organization, or of the publication itself. Try, The Informer, for a simple example. Use present tense or -ing verbs to give it an immediate feeling and let your audience know what they will be able to do after reading. Cook and Eat and Mountain Biking Now are good examples.
Suggest action with your title if your company or newsletter has a mission. This is especially relevant for political and nonprofit newsletters. Words for this include:
- Cause
- Network
- Dynamics
Think about who your audience is and what benefits they will get from reading your newsletter. A title is a perfect place to let them how the content will improve their work or life experience. Of course you are going to provide news, but try to take it a step beyond. Is your newsletter for employees only, or could other associates outside of the company read it? You might use the target audience or some of the reading benefits in the title.
- Affiliate Marketer’s Guide
- Get More Done Today
- Triple Your Profits Report
For more on action, audience, and benefits, see https://writtent.com/blog/6-tips-on-creating-compelling-newsletter-titles/
Branding
Many companies already have a strong brand or they make it a part of their mission to build one. If this is true for you, consider how you can use your brand in your publication name.
- Try to connect the title to other content you produce or products you make. Contently calls their weekly newsletter, The Freelance Strategist: While You Were Writing, which includes the title of their blog, The Freelance Strategist.
- Include a color or other significant detail of your brand. Alliteration works well for this. If blue is a big part of your brand, you might call your newspaper, The Blue Bugle.
See https://lonelybrand.com/blog/tips-for-naming-your-e-newsletter/ for more on brand name inclusion.
Final Considerations
While you will definitely want your company name somewhere on the newsletter, you don’t necessarily need it in the title. Most of the time readers are already aware of the company that the publication is coming from, and putting the name in the title is not eye-catching. If you want to use it, try some wordplay instead of the whole thing untouched. Subheadings are a good place for it too. You could also simply ensure that the newsletter is printed or emailed on company letterhead or with the company logo.
Your employees may be an excellent resource if you’re having trouble choosing a title yourself. Many newsletter editors elect to hold a contest among their audience to determine the publication’s name. Readers can submit their suggestions for a title, and the editors choose their favorite or hold a vote for the best one. The winner can be rewarded with a prize or just with the honor of having their title immortalized as the name of the newsletter. If you want to use your first issue to announce the contest, you could put a giant question mark or image of a blank nametag where the title should go.
Beware: if you choose this method, there may not be many submissions to choose from, and you are committed to the result even if it is unfavorable to the company image. As an alternative, request anonymous submissions from employees without holding a contest so that you are free to choose from, combine, or reject their ideas without obligation, but everyone can still feel involved in the process if they want to be.
Some other considerations that may matter to you when naming your newsletter:
- Do you need it to be easy to pronounce? If you want your readers to discuss it in person, then you probably do. Don’t make it a tongue-twister.
- Should it be memorable? Again, if you want readers to call it by name and not “the newsletter” when they talk about it, it does. You’ll want something alliterative or industry-specific for this.
- Would you like it to be original? This can be hard, especially when the tried-and-true names are so catchy. But especially for a bigger company, it might be an important point. Come up with a few titles you like, then do some web searching to see if you can find any other newsletters or publications with those names.
- Will you need a visual logo to go with it? If so, you might choose a title that lends itself to an image. Use “star” in your title and create a logo with a star; call it The Trumpet and your logo can be that instrument, maybe with a newspaper coming out of the end.
Deciding what to name your newsletter is a big task, especially if you plan on sticking with that title for the foreseeable future. If you’re still unsure what to name yours after reading this article, do some research on what other similar newspapers in your industry are called, especially if you have some friends in another company who might be able to give you the inside scoop (Inside Scoop—a potential title). You won’t want to name yours exactly the same as another publication you find, but you might be able to spin off of it. And remember, as important as titles are, the reason for a newsletter is the content, so make a choice for the name, stand by it, and publish issues that would make your title proud.