I watched a friend spend hours on a community newsletter. He took the pictures himself, fussed over the formatting, and made it look professional. It was beautiful.

The experience of reading tends to be better with a book too. Words stamped on a page in black ink are easier to read than words formed of pixels on a backlit screen.

The stories inside were summaries of a few activities and notices about what was coming up. I couldn't find anything in it to think about or argue with, and nothing that made me want the next issue.

He wasn't an investigative journalist, and he didn't want to be one. He needed a partner who liked digging into things: asking the hard questions, exploring possibilities, working out the risks and trade-offs, and enjoying all of it.

He never found that person. Eventually he ran out of steam and the newsletter stopped. I've always thought that was a shame. His work on the design deserved someone's work on the reporting beside it, and I think the two of them would have kept each other going.

That's a big part of why UnityUpdates has two roles. The Editor keeps the desk: the beats that need covering, the edition day, the corrections. Reporters take assignments and do the digging under their own names. The person who loves making the edition look good shouldn't also have to chase down last year's budget.

If you're the one making the newsletter, look around your next meeting for the person who keeps asking questions. Ask them, by name, to report one story. Give them an angle and one document to request, and run what they find with their name on it.