He revived his e-newsletter … with better writing

Rob Patey’s e-mail newsletter doesn’t have cool graphics or splashy color. The only thing it does have is readers … lots of them Rob Patey is a man on an editorial mission. Patey, the Web editor at Vertex, Inc., is out to prove that people will read a plain old ordinary e-mail newsletter, as long as it’s written well. So far, Patey is proving himself right. Patey edits the Vertex Cybertax News, a monthly newsletter that informs tax professionals of the latest tax changes occurring throughout the country. It’s a straightforward e-mail newsletter, with no graphics or color. The material itself is pretty dry, too, and putting it in a straight e-mail format certainly doesn’t make it any sexier. So it’s no surprise that when Patey first came to Vertex, the newsletter was in trouble. That’s putting it mildly. “When I started with my company three years ago the readership for our online newsletter was atrophying faster than George Bush’s approval rating,” says Patey.