PROVIDENCE — For a City Council member, it can be tough to get news of your exploits out to the public. Newspapers and television stations report what they want, and direct mailings are expensive.

So the City Council is turning to the Internet, and will fire out a regular e-newsletter to Providence residents known as The Docket. The first issue debuted yesterday, with five articles and a message from Council President John J. Lombardi.

“The council was motivated to create and publish The Docket by our belief in the importance to our democracy of regular, frank communication between government and the people,” Lombardi said. “An e-newsletter remains a prime example of how the extraordinary tool that is the Internet can be utilized to great positive effect in the democratic process.”

The first issue runs the gamut of news from the grandiose – the city’s level of preparedness for an outbreak of avian flu – to the more mundane, such as the opening of a Tim Hortons in Ward 12.

The articles are written by the council staff, primarily Charles Drago, the council’s manager of communications and media, who said the newsletter will feature items that may fall under the local media’s radar.

“It may be stuff that gets understandably peripheral coverage in the news media, that we think merits a little more attention,” Drago said.

The Docket will appear irregularly for now, but is planned for monthly publication.

Drago said he plans to introduce letters to the editor, opinion pieces and more neighborhood news.

But this little newsletter has the same problem all big media companies do: attracting subscribers.

Unfortunately for the City Council, regulations prohibit sending the newsletter to every one of the 3,000 e-mail addresses it has on file. To sign up, residents will have to visit the council’s Web site at www.ProvidenceRI.com/CityCouncil. City officials will be asking residents who call the council offices if they want to sign up for the newsletter.