REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Inside Santa Clara Redesign Update [Council Pillar: Enhance Community Engagement and Transparency]
Report
BACKGROUND
The City of Santa Clara’s newspaper-style publication, Inside Santa Clara, provides the latest updates on City initiatives, programs, services and special events. Inside Santa Clara is currently produced three times a year in the fall, winter/spring, and summer, and is mailed and delivered to approximately 57,820 residential and business addresses in Santa Clara. The newsletter is also distributed at all City facilities, including community centers and libraries, and available online, https://www.santaclaraca.gov/i-want-to/stay-informed/newsroom/city-publications/inside-santa-clara.
The newsletter redesign project began in the fall with a competitive procurement process for graphic design services. The consultant, We The Creative, was awarded the contract and began work on the redesign in December 2019.
DISCUSSION
The City’s newsletter has maintained the same format and design for at least the last 20 years. Over this period, the public’s methods for consuming information has changed along with increasing demands for their time. The redesign for Inside Santa Clara will not only modernize the publication for a digital audience but also better reflect the City’s brand as The Center of What’s Possible.
The goals of redesigning the City newsletter include:
• Improve the design layout and use of photos to support the City brand;
• Enhance readability for community members;
• Incorporate four-color printing from the current two-color printing;
• Enhance the design for viewing the publication online; and
• Evaluate the size and type of paper used for publication while still being able to contain inserts and be cost effective for mailing.
City staff conducted public outreach about a new look and feel for Inside Santa Clara through an online survey; the City’s Economic Development, Communications & Marketing Committee; Leadership Santa Clara participants, social media and in-person. An overview of some of the outreach results includes more than 1,679 impressions for a Nextdoor post about seeking input on the new look of the newsletter (Jan. 7, 2020), multiple posts on Twitter in January 2020 resulting in more than 15,500 impressions, several Facebook posts reaching 1,639 users, and more than 1,400 City News subscribers receiving an invitation to take the survey.
The feedback we received from the online survey was positive and focused on modernizing the newsletter, including a desire for four-color design and making it easier to read while on-the-go. Consistently, the overall community input was to continue mailing the publication, instead of only providing it on the City website.
Over the last few months, the City’s Communications Office has been collaborating with the consultant and City staff from all departments to fine-tune the redesigned newsletter. The new Inside Santa Clara reflects a modern layout, reformatted content to improve readability and an updated design for viewing on-the-go. The color palette, typography and layout are representative of the innovation and ingenuity that are part of the City’s brand. The length of the publication has been reduced to 8-12 pages from roughly 20 pages with content organized to improve the reader experience. The new Inside Santa Clara will be full of relevant and timely City content that is of immediate interested to readers and presented in a magazine-style format that better markets what The Center of What’s Possible truly represents.
The attachment provides samples from the current version in comparison to the redesigned newsletter.
The new Inside Santa Clara is scheduled to make its debut for the summer edition, arriving in mailboxes sometime in June 2020. An online survey will follow to collect feedback from the community about the redesigned City newsletter.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The action being considered does not constitute a “project” within the meaning of a California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) pursuant to the CEQA Guidelines section 15378(a) as it has no potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment.
FISCAL IMPACT
Currently, the City allocates approximately $150,000 annually to this effort, which includes printing, mailing and delivery, postage, stock photography, graphic design, and writing/editing services. The writing/editing services used in the production of past newsletters are now being performed by City Communications staff at a savings of approximately $32,000.
At this time, newsletter costs are still being calculated but they are not expected to exceed what has been allocated in the past for this service.
COORDINATION
This report has been coordinated with the City Manager’s Office.
PUBLIC CONTACT
Public contact was made by posting the Council agenda on the City’s official-notice bulletin board outside City Hall Council Chambers. A complete agenda packet is available on the City’s website and in the City Clerk’s Office at least 72 hours prior to a Regular Meeting and 24 hours prior to a Special Meeting. A hard copy of any agenda report may be requested by contacting the City Clerk’s Office at (408) 615-2220, email clerk@santaclaraca.gov <mailto:clerk@santaclaraca.gov>.
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Note and file the Inside Santa Clara Redesign Update.
Staff
Reviewed by: Lenka Wright, Director of Communications, City Manager’s Office
Approved by: Deanna J. Santana, City Manager
ATTACHMENTS
1. Original layout and mockup redesign of Inside Santa Clara newsletter