Award-winning Edward Lowe Report uses striking colors and numerous sidebars to break up extensive text. (Effective Design).

The Edward Lowe Report, according to its mission statement, "is a quick-read resource for entrepreneurs and their senior managers, offering real-world solutions from entrepreneurs who lead growing companies."

On the face of it, the newsletter is anything but a "quick read"--it's 16 pages long with practically wall-to-wall text set in 10-point type, and some of the articles run to three pages.

But numerous color-screened sidebars--at least one per page--break up the otherwise overwhelming text and provide the promised "quick reads."

Many of the sidebars, like the one pictured here in the lower right-hand corner of p. 1, profile successful entrepreneurs (six of them in this issue). Their photos and sometimes those of authors, with invariably smiling faces, also liven up the newsletter.

Even though The Edward Lowe Report, taglined "Plain Talk about Growing Your Company, is a b-to-b publication, it acts like a consumer one with a lot of striking colors--orange, purple, yellow, and green--and a $39/year price tag for the monthly.

Subscribers are obviously getting a lot for their money.

The judges in the 2001 Newsletter Awards Competition sponsored by The Newsletter on Newsletters gave The Edward Lowe Report a Silver Award in the subscription newsletter category. Criteria included "superior editorial content enhanced by appropriate design and typography and photographic and printing quality."

Although this publication breaks a few of the b-to-b newsletter "rules," its typeface treatment falls back on the pretty standard sans serif (Futura) for headlines and sidebars and serif (Times) for body text.

The heads are well written, clear statements, many of them commands, bolstered by equally clear subheads. Example: "Comply with employment laws--painlessly," with the subhead "Avoid pitfalls that can trigger costly litigation."

The heads are set in down style--that is, capitalizing only the first word and proper nouns--which adds to the readability and amiability of the very informative Edward Lowe Report. "Plain talk" at its best.