How to Number a Newsletter

By Angela Tague

Updated January 09, 2018

When creating a newsletter, include volume and issue numbers.
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Newsletters are commonly used to foster communications between companies and their clients. Interoffice newsletters are popular in large companies so that employees in various departments can learn of their colleagues' ongoing projects and successes. Keeping these weekly, or even monthly, publications organized is a task for the communications department. Many newsletters are numbered and sequenced in the same manner as newspapers. Assigning a volume and edition number makes it easier to archive and retrieve past issues of the newsletters.

Assign a volume number to the newsletter. This number will organize the publication by year. For example, all newsletters in the year 2014, the first year of the newsletter's publication, will be labeled "Volume 1." Issues printed in 2015 will carry the notation "Volume 2" on the cover.

Give each newsletter an issue number. This unique number will represent just one version of the newsletter. For example, if the newsletter is printed monthly, January would be "Issue 1." February's newsletter would be "Issue 2."

Repeat the numbering system. When a new year begins, increase the volume number by one, and label the January issue as "Issue 1." That individual publication will have a unique identification number since it is the only "Issue 1" for that volume number.

Tips

If a new publication is started in a month other than January, choose to label the first issues of that calendar year one of two ways. Start the first publication with "Issue 1" or skip ahead and use the number corresponding to the month that the first issue came out.

Use the numbering system to archive the publications. The content of the newsletter can easily be numerically archived on an electronic database by volume and issue number. Similarly, retrieve past issues with this numbering system. To look at past newsletters and articles detailing projects and events in the month of March, open each file labeled "Issue Number 3." March is the third month of the year, so all issues should correspond to your research.

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