When we try to be all things to all employees, are we setting ourselves up to fail? Read on to find out . . . and possibly win a free registration to an upcoming event!
Draw this scenario in your mind . . .
You are a great magazine editor. Online, print . . . it doesn’t matter. You know how to tell great stories in a way that draws people in. You know how to use photography, you know good design when you see it.
And someone comes to you with a dream job offer: You get to create your own magazine. You will have final say on everything. And you have an unlimited budget!
The only thing is, you have to cater to certain people. The Powers That Be have conducted a focus group to find out what people want in a magazine, and they want you to build the magazine based on what the people in the focus group said they read.
So you have to create a magazine that would appeal to all of the following people:
Marty the Accountant: Marty reads Maxim. For the articles. He WOULD read Playboy for the articles. But his wife won’t let him.
Chuck the Factory Worker: He reads Mechanics Weekly. He’s such a guy, he sometimes jerks off to Mechanics Weekly. To the pictures of the tools. He really likes the drills. He thinks Marty is a homo.
Bea the Human Resources worker. She reads Good Housekeeping, when she’s not running her local Quilting Bee or canning her own jam. She would be mortified if someone used the word “homo” in front of her.
David the Entry-level Marketer. David reads Sports Illustrated. He wears Dan Marino jerseys under his suit, and thinks nobody notices. He often goes in the bathroom and does seven-step drops in front of the mirror, and practices his throwing motion. He’s in 17 different fantasy football leagues.
Brittany the Receptionist. She reads Cosmo Girl. Or tries to. She has a problem with some of the words. The big ones. She’s 25, and president of the Justin Timberlake fan club in her neighborhood. She has a Justin Timberlake calendar in her cube at work. Her IQ is roughly the same as her Justin Timberlake poster.
Stuart the Chief Financial Officer. Stuart reads The Economist. His left toe is smarter than Brittany. He is very educated. He is very refined. If Chuck the Factory Worker ever met Stuart, he would call him a homo. Stuart is, by the way, a homo. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Phil the Truck Driver. Phil reads Field and Stream. Like Sarah Palin, he can field-dress a moose. Blindfolded. While drinking a beer. If he ever met Chuck, he’d call Chuck a homo.
Leslie the Event Planner. She reads Vegetarian Weekly. She does yoga four times a day. She bathes in soy milk, and rubs linseed oil into her scalp every day.
Maurice the Designer. Maurce reads Food and Wine Magazine. He brings things like fois gras and brie to lunch. Whenever he sees someone getting something out of the vending machine, he makes disapproving “tsk tsk” noises. Maurice has a crush on Stuart. And David.
Ashley the Telemarketer. Ashley hasn’t read a book since she read The Outsiders as a senior in high school. She thought it was too deep. Ashley spends most of her time on MySpace or texting her friends. She actually thinks that “you” is spelled “u.” She is in awe of Brittany’s intellect.
Okay . . . there is the representative sampling of your target audience. Now get to it! Create a magazine that ALL of those people will read and like! You’ve got to find content that Maurice and Chuck have in common! That Phil and Stuart would both like!
You’ve got to find stories that will interest David and Brittany and Bea! What would that be, a story about Dan Marino and Justin Timberlake participating in a quilting bee competition? Those stories don’t exist!
These people have nothing in common! You can’t write for them! Right?
And yet . . . and yet . . . this is what every employee editor has to do, isn’t it? We don’t have the luxury of writing and editing for a specfic audience! We have to try to please everyone at the company—the Chucks and the Davids and the Beas and the Brittanys and everybody else, too!
It’s an impossible job . . . isn’t it?
Or is it? Is there one piece of advice, one clue, that could help you create a publication that could serve all those people? Is there one philosophy that you could follow that would make everybody happy?
I think there is. And I think I know what it is. But I’d like you to tell me what you think it is. And we’ll make a contest out of it . . . whoever submits an answer in the comments section below will go into a drawing for a free registration to a Crescenzo Communications event . . . and we’ve got some fun stuff planned for the future—including possibly the first-ever “Communications Cruise,” a trip to Wine Country, and some other fun stuff!
And if someone else says your answer first, pile in anyway. Your name will still go into the drawing!
So have at it: How the HELL do you create a publication—either online or in print—that could satisfy all those different kinds of people?
* To enter the drawing, 1) post your answer below and 2) click this link to enter your contact information.
Um…is this a trick question?? Cause it seems to me that the obvious answer is:
You do the publication online…in “chunks” that are targetted separately to each of the diverse people you describe above, so you CAN talk to each of them in ways they will care about…inexpensively…and with the flexibility to change directions quickly and easily when you need to.
Or am I just dense and completely missing the point here? (which certainly is not out of the realm of possibility with me!)
You wrote about these different folks’ wants, hobbies, and personal preferences. But underneath, they share commonalities: they are all employees of your company, and they share similar *needs* and they’re all (with hope) working to achieve one company mission.
So if you begin to focus on what these folks need as employees, you’ll have their attention and you’ll be helping them get their job done.
Down the road, you can get into technical solutions like Kristen’s above, with dynamic RSS, customizable channels, and other stuff that allows folks to narrow what’s most relevant to them.
I think you don’t write the pub at all. You create a social community on the intranet, provide conversation starters, the tools, and let employees do the talking. Each employee will get to share his or her perspective on the topics and share how it effects their job. It also builds engagement by giving employees a way to connect through outside interests. And it’s a great way to connect senior leadership to employees through online conversation.
Plus, it keeps Ashley on your social network during work hours as opposed to MySpace.
Regardless of the format, you do your best to communicate the company’s mission in easy-to-understand language and how each employee can contribute to that effort.
If it’s a print publication, you break up the gray with naked pictures of Steve Crescenzo with various props (such as over-sized checks) to keep people laughing.
An article on…money…everyone has that in common. They all need it to survive. And, even if they don’t admit it, they like it and they would be happy with more of it. I’m sick to death of hearing about the current economic crisis the world is in, but it’s real and even if people aren’t paying attention to the news media, they notice it in their 401(k) statements. If they are the type that doesn’t think investing in their 401(k) is important, they will likely notice it when they don’t get a pay increase during their annual review (and they can’t afford magazines and, therefore, have nothing but the free company publication). A realistic article on how to deal with finances in a time like this is important. Let employees know that it is impacting everyone. It’s no fun to hear about the new car your executive bought, but hearing that he/she has had to cut back, too, is somehow comforting. I’m not saying an entire publication needs to be about finances, but an article on it in each would be nice. Oh, and keep a printed pub — the world is changing, but Chuck still doesn’t want to go online.
You got to get people involved. Develop an employee communications team with representatives across the job categories and different locations (if possible). Give them the title, the responsibility, and let them go. You are the chief editor and have the objectives and goals clearly lined. You will be amazed at how much fun these people have doing this. Toughest part, getting them the respect of their management to spend a little time on their piece each month.
All really good ideas, but I still think at least one person will be in a pissed off mood at their boss or the company and just see whatever is being done as management propaganda.
Steve – I see your fixation with the word “homo” has returned. What does that say about you… sub-consciously? You’ve always been just a little bit too interested…
C’mon buddy, get with the program. Homo is pejorative. It’s a juvenile put down and is not funny to many of your readers.
There’s help for you from the National Gay & Lesbian Journalists Assn: Stylebook Supplement on LGBT Terminology. http://www.nlgja.org/resources/stylebook.html
Seriously, you know I love you. Leave my people alone – we’re not your running gag.
The hobbies, interests and (to an extent) IQ levels of these people really aren’t relevant. The fact that they do different jobs is, because – assuming your content is about work and not about the latest quilting trends (unless that’s what your company does)- they will all be drawn to different topics.
Help them do their jobs, help them understand the company they work for and help them feel good about the job they’re doing and the company they’re doing it for – whether they’re Field and Stream or Tiger Beat readers, those things are relevant to all of them.
But Ilene’s right – someone’s going to be in a bad mood and see it all as garbage. But maybe tomorrow they’ll be in a different frame of mind (wait, my rose-colored glasses are slipping off my nose…).
The hobbies, interests and (to an extent) IQ levels of these people really aren’t relevant. The fact that they do different jobs is, because – assuming your content is about work and not about the latest quilting trends (unless that’s what your company does)- they will all be drawn to different topics.
Help them do their jobs, help them understand the company they work for and help them feel good about the job they’re doing and the company they’re doing it for – whether they’re Field and Stream or Tiger Beat readers, those things are relevant to all of them.
But Ilene’s right – someone’s going to be in a bad mood and see it all as garbage. But maybe tomorrow they’ll be in a different frame of mind (wait, my rose-colored glasses are slipping off my nose…).
The pub should answer this question: “What’s in it for me?” People want to read about things that affect them. Benefits. Company initiatives that will make their jobs easier, harder, safer or just different than they are now. How well the company is performing (will they have a job later this year?) Deliver it is a package that includes interesting photos, articles that feature people like them and references to related online content.
You could create an employee publication in the form of a comic book, or as the fanboys like to call them… Graphic novel. You could then use cheesy storylines, and a multitude of characters who would appeal to each of your audience in order to get a message across in the form of a story. I’d suggest the first story be about sensitivity training and tolerance. Hah.
Keep it simple and clear, and use different formats and vehicles that will appeal to as many audience members as possible. For example, communicate in print with charts, graphs and spreadsheets for Marty and Stuart. Send brilliant Brittany and awesome Ashley an e-alert with a link to a short, trendy and coo-all (cool) video clip. Attract Phil and David with a brief story followed by chart or puzzle they have to fill in and then check their answers to see if they were right. They won’t even realize they learned something. This is the advice, the clue — Offer variety in all the formats and mediums possible to have something to appeal to the many different ways people like to receive information. Get them there by giving them what they want and they’re likely to stick around for a little more. Use an interesting and creative range of tools in the toolbox to get the job done.
While everyone has a different background, including age, diversity, interests, etc., the one bond that ties everyone together is the success of the company. No matter your position within an organization, you should be interested in knowing how your company is doing.
I live, breathe and preach the “What’s in it for me?” approach. Everyone can relate to how the company is performing. How do we compare to our competitors? What changes are we making to adjust to the current environment? How can Jane Doe team member advance her career at a time when jobs within the company might not be too plentiful. My philosohy is to not get bogged down in writing about department stuff that only that department will care about. Instead, focus on talking with the leaders of the organization. Everyone, no matter your job, should be concerned with the health of the company … Find those commons themes (benefits, advancement, mentoring,) …
Wow.
This turned out better than I thought it would. I want to thank everyone so far for putting such thought into the their answers.
There is some GREAT advice in these responses . . . please keep it coming. And we can forget about my original question. I love hearing everyone’s editorial philosophy.
My original “clue” was similar to several of the answers above: No matter how different people are outside of work, when they come to work they have one thing in common: they’re all working toward the success of the company ((and, as a direct result of that, their OWN success).
That’s the biggest argument I have for eliminating all the softer hobby stories and other fluff that you still see seep into so many employee communication vehicles.
Stick to the one thing people have in common: the company, its future, its success or failure . . . find those stories: the ones that have real people in them. Real people helping the organization.
But let’s keep it going! The contest is alive . . . . and thank you all again.
Steve C.
Charles!!
Damn . . .I forgot you had come out of hibernation. Is there a way we could hang some kind of virtual bell around your neck, so that we know when you’re lurking with your overly sensitive bullshit?
Leave my people alone????? What are you, the gay Moses?
Now you listen to me, you big homo: I’ve got more gay friends than straight friends.
The use of the word “homo” was very deliberate in this article. I wasn’t calling Stuart a homo. CHUCK was calling Stuart a homo.
Because I know tons of Chucks. And they use words like homo. And fag, too. It was meant to show how drastically different people in the workplace are, and how little they truly have in common . . .other than the COMPANY.
I would have thought that, since you have been hibernating for four years, you would have grown a thicker skin during that time!
Steve C.
Aawwww. I got delayed posting and my two cents are repeats now!
1. COMPANY/ROLES = must have info that help them do their jobs and thrive in the company.
2. WIFFM = what’s in it for me? Always answer the employee’s question “So What?” in the context of point # 1.
3. And my best piece of advice (not) – write like they do at WOOT.COM. I have never found anyone who doesn’t respond to their humor and wish the world was full of Woots. Imagine the Congressional sessions. Imagine the Wall Street wrap ups on TV that we could have.
Bwah ha ha ha – Steve, you kill me. Just read your last comment.
Paula:
I’ve never heard of WOOT.COM!!! I’m going there immediately to check it out. Thanks for the lead.
You’re NOT repeating!! Your advice is great. And don’t let that lousy Charles depress you. He’s a wonderful guy, but a bit of a bedwetter.
And, most important, you’re in the drawing. Now, when are we going to talk about bringing the Creative Communications Seminar to southern California?!?!
Steve C.
Steve C.
My advice is like the others – for your essential message, find what the people have in common, not how they differ. You still might have to present it in different ways – desk people can usually read the intranet without a problem, factory floor people usually don’t have the opportunity – but the message has to be about why they should all care about what’s happening at work. In other words (that someone else has already used in a previous post), what’s in it for them?
And if you’re going to talk about the differences anyway, then celebrate them and relate them to a corporate value/goal. Like maybe Phil puts as much effort into getting your deliveries where they’re supposed to be, on time, as he did in tracking the moose once he found its tracks. Just with less blood. Do that story and guess what, Phil might start reading the magazine when he’s waiting in line at loading docks!
Steve – I just emailed you their “don’t buy our stuff/don’t visit us” email from December. Also emailed about getting you to L.A. Cheers
Nancy:
Great advice, re: linking who they are with what they do.
I find that’s the missing element in most “soft” features: they don’t find that crucial link back to the workplace. I think we need to do that . . . or we’re just writing random feature stories about semi-interesting people.
Thanks, Paula! I got it. Talk to you later this week!
Steve C.
I started reading this early today, and then the press of work has interfered, so I apologize if I’m repeating anything that’s already been said. I’m going to speak not as a communicator (because, after all, the bulk of my communications in the past decade has been about IT stuff, and that hardly counts). I’m going to speak as an employee.
At my last job, a telephone company with about 500 employees, we got a lot of communications, from a monthly employee newsletter to a semi-regular emaili from the CEO to all the goofball stuff that comes in between. And when I’d talk to my co-workers, whether they were linemen or worked in the warehouse or in accounting or as customer service reps, what every one of us wanted and never got was honest information about how our company was doing now that we had gone from being a monopoly to having a large and aggressive competitor. We didn’t want mealy-mouthed “you’re all the best” attaboys, or profiles of each other, or to know what a great job we did in our fundraisers for charity. We wanted to know how the company was doing, and what we could do to help out. We wanted some credit for having good ideas and insights that upper management might lack, and we wanted to feel like someone somewhere would listen and pay attention and let us make a difference.
So how do you put that in a communication device? I don’t care what you use, though honestly print works better with most people, especially the field workers. But what we wanted to know was what’s really going on. Give us some competitive information. Tell us how many customers we’ve lost (we knew we’d lose them), and what that represents in revenue, and what that means for the budget next year, and how you predict it will affect us in future years. Offer us up a few scenarios, and then tell us how we can make the rosy one into reality.
But that requires honesty and respect on the part of upper management, and I haven’t run across much of that in my 52 years on this planet.
Joan:
You are right on the money. In just about EVERY single focus group I’ve ever done (and I’ve done a lot over the years), you hear the same message, in one form or another, from employees:
“Give us the truth, no matter what it is. Give us the business realities. Give us the bad news without sugarcoating it or spinning it. We’re not babies. We’re not naive. We understand that business is tough. We can handle anything you tell us. Just TELL US. And let us know what we can do to help.”
I really believe that the #1 job of internal communicators today is to constantly wage that war with executives, to help them understand what employees want.
Steve C.
As others have pointed out, your business publication is a BUSINESS publication. This is where you educate your employees about what is going on in the company – all aspects and areas of the company. There are a ton of stories you can tell that help get location A acquainted with what is being done in location B and maybe they can adapt the program for the specifics of their line of buisness.
By using employees to tell the stories or featuring them in your articles, you also are helping to build a sense of community among the entire workforce. You also are helping employees become ambassadors for your company in the community. Their friends and neighbors know they work for the company and will turn to them to find out what’s going on. You’re missing the boat if you don’t give your employees the information they need to answer those questions.
And, you WANT your employees to look to you for those answers. So that means you need to get the information out there quickly and clearly. Your employees should hear news about their company from their company, not the morning fishwrapper or the perky news anchors.
It’s a tough job assignment and requires work and dedication to do it well, but it’s not an impossible job.
Create a magazine FOR the people, BY the people, ABOUT the people. Even the Martys, Chucks, Davids and Phils of the world would tolerate the occasional Maurice and Stuart input/features, as long as they get to hear/read/fantasize about the breasts of the Ashleys and Brittanys. And, let’s face it, the Beas either used to be the Ashleys and the Brittanys or at least enjoy living vicariously through them, no matter how much they poo-poo them. And even if they don’t like the word “homo,” they love the way the Maurices and Stuarts style their blue hair! NO ONE can avoid a good train wreck. Look at People Magazine’s readership! All kidding aside, the stories should, of course, center on how the PEOPLE of the company are embracing and carrying out the mission of the company.
Colleen: Your second graf up there captures my philosophy exactly.
And you know what? With social media taking over and employees talking to HUNDREDS of people (via facebook and twitter and myspace and their blogs and message boards) employee communication is more important than ever.
Steve C.
Kenyon:
HA!! Thanks for the chuckle . . .and you’re right . . . focus on the people, not the programs or processes or policies or procedures . . . .it’s the people, stupid, to paraphase Clinton. It’s what the PEOPLE are doing to help the organization succeed.
Steve C.
How cool is this?? There are so many comments that you had to go to a “next” page addition!!
I’d say that means the new site is a hit already…not that I ever doubted it!
Yay Crescenzos!!!
>>>Because I know tons of Chucks. And they use words like homo. And fag, too. It was meant to show how drastically different people in the workplace are, and how little they truly have in common . . .<<<<
Would they use the “N” word too? or spew anti-Semitic remarks? Defame women, or people of various ethnic groups – such as Latinos?
Will your future posts celebrate those views?
It’s 2009 and its not alright to use “homo” in professional writing, even if to illustrate a point.
Now, I know you well enough, and long enough, to know that you are not anti-gay. Yet, there is a pattern with you and this theme that stretches back years.
So I see you resort to brush offs, calling me over sensitive and saying other crass things. Nope – just standing up for myself and other gay communicators who appreciate your wisdom but don’t want to be put down for your editorial amusement.
I could make this personal, but I won’t. Let’s just say I know better than to think you would publish pejoratives that would likely offend Shel, Ralph G., et al.
I love you, Charles. Future posts will not contain the word “homo.” I can’t speak to the comments section.
Might you have a word to say about employee publications? Your opinion here would be greatly appreciated!
Steve C.
It’s like one big freak show, isn’t it? And that’s what’s scary… and intriguing… about the whole thing. Employees are obsessed with each other even when they are vastly different. Ah, it’s what the grapevine is all about, right? Which must be why these pubs spend so many inches on birthdays and whose kid did what and they get read.
Ultimately what every employee has in common is the workplace. If you can find a way to tell a compelling story that illustrates the values the company is trying to uphold, it is readable and purposeful. After all, if they read it and it isn’t purposeful, why did you go to all that work, right?
Well, Steve, you might have meant your question to be a “trick,” but, in fact I do think you can never please everybody with any publication, no matter what medium or mediums you choose. Even if you don’t consider how different employees are outside work, you still have plenty of diversity inside work, and people do NOT leave themselves at the door when they come to work.
As a veteran of newsletters and magazines for companies big and small, and organizations of every stripe and even my local community, I can say that without exception somebody always complains. But even if you discount the perennial naysayers, I still strongly question the wisdom of putting out a publication.
The so-called advice I have read in the comments from other folks reads to me like a justification of their jobs. What I remember hearing from employees that they get way too much communication. They don’t read print publications, especially if they start off with “A message from [insert title of executive].” And particularly if they have pix of people doing stuff that is relevant only to the people in the pix. They don’t have time to access publications delivered online. In a world of information overload, we should be the last ones to contribute to it.
The one thing I did read that made sense to me was the input from employees about what they want to hear. They do want to know how their company is doing and they want it straight. The place for that information is NOT a regular publication. People don’t look for it there. Getting that information to employees belongs in message or “memo” that focuses on one issue and comes from a respected source as needed.
Communicators need to stop trying to put these publications out. Not only do they not appeal to everybody, they are rarely relevant. Any “news” is out of date by the time it gets approved by all the wimpy execs and timid managers, no matter what medium you use. If you stripped all the crap out of such publications and only delivered relevant, biz-related, real news, you’d have what I described above. It wouldn’t be regular, because you wouldn’t have “real” content on a regular basis. It would need to be focused and come directly from the appropriate source so that it could be timely and credible. As communicators we could be the vehicle for the delivery of such messages and we could certainly help the source craft the content. But folks, forget the publications. They suck, and deep down we all know it.
No, Sandi, we don’t all know it.
The fact the readership of our daily online newsletter ranges from 65 percent to 90 percent, tells me that the employees of my company are reading our publication.
Our highest readership is usually on articles that feature employees and what they’ve done or will be doing that supports our company or our industry.
We also see evidence of our publications bringing together employees from our various locations and lines of business. When we had a major equipment problem at one location, we chronicled the event from start to finish. This included the shipping of a replacement piece of equipment – over land and sea – to our facility. Our readership hovered at 90 percent for the entire month-long saga. That demonstrated to us that employees in other lines of business and at other locations were following what was going on because they understood: 1) it was an interesting story but 2) the outcome affected their COMPANY. There was a real sense of “we’re in this together” and that we all were invested in the outcome.
You are right, however, there are employees who will never read a company pub. Of course, these are also the same employees who complain that they missed a deadline for something because no one told them about it.
You cannot satisfy everyone but you can give it your best shot and do quality work. When we see our readership hitting 90 percent, I think we’ve done just that. And that’s a good reason to continue providing interesting copy, relevant information and good photos and graphics.
If you’re not willing to put in the work and do that, then you’re right. You will have a publication that isn’t worth reading.
Sandi:
I’m going with Colleen on this one. I’ve worked on too many successful publications to believe they can NEVER work.
Do a lot of them suck? Yes. Hell, I’ve made a living criticizing the bad ones, and I’ve never been short of material, and probably never will be.
And yes, if you lead with “A message from the . . .” and follow it with headlines like “Synergy!” and bad photos and “meeting stories” and other crap, nobody will read it.
But if you find topics with company-wide relevance, if you write great headlines and leads, if you do your best to get good photos (or else run no photos at all), if you quote real people saying real things (and not just executives spouting boilerplate), if—-for an online pub—you make them interactive and multimedia . . . . if you do all these things, you can reach and influence your employees.
I’ve seen it happen too many times to think otherwise.
The problem is, too many people have gotten the creativity kicked out of them. They’ve adopted your attitude, which is: These bastards will never let me do any real communication, so why bother?
Once that attitude settles in, you might as well go get a job at Starbucks.
But as long as you’re willing to fight, to do things differently, to ruffle some feathers, to bang some heads, to stand up for good communication . . . you can make it happen.
It won’t be perfect. You WON’T please all the people. But you can do an awful lot of good for the organization .
Steve C.
Thanks, Steve – slurs R not cool
I agree with Colleen (the soaring one) >>>Our highest readership is usually on articles that feature employees and what they’ve done or will be doing that supports our company or our industry.<<<
This is Roger d’Aprix 101. Gotta connect employees to the bigger picture, the business plan, the organization’s need for competitiveness… and let them know how they can contribute.
Managers are not parents. They should not be treating employees like children – but rather as adult partners in the success of the organization. That means telling people what the company needs to do to survive, and engaging them for support. Explaining why.
Another commenter cited WIIFT… what’s in it for them. Right on! In these uncertain economic times, people need to know how they plug in to the behavior that will keep the enterprise afloat… what they can do to ensure profitability and continued employment.
As I have said many times re: labor communication (working with unions): need to emphasize people as much as profit.
Bean counters are overly focused on numbers… without people there will never be profit. To boost profit, I’d like to see a company NOT reduce the number of people but instead reduce executive pay and bonuses! I know, when pigs fly…
Steve,
By now, my answer is of course, only a variation of others
Approach it like a Choose Your Own Adventure book.
Write about the business and ensure each article focuses on people (who’s involved or what it means to an employee). Because they are all employees they all need to know about the company. Because they are all people, they all need to know that the company values the people who work there.
Prepare a variety of articles that look at the business from a number of perspectives (financial, operational, personal, legal, etc.). Print the best stuff and then put the rest of the articles online (along with extra photos and discussion boards).
If you make sure that the success of the print pub doesn’t come at the expense of the online pub (and vice versa), you can draw each employee to what they are interested in and help steer them toward other items that they may have otherwise missed.
Then, make sure you repeat the formula often enough that employees begin to get excited about when a new issue will come out. Everyone may not like everything that ‘s produced, but they should like enough that they give the magazine a good review when you survey them for further feedback.
Everyone is an employee of my company. So we make it entertaining, fun and easy to read with a wide variety of content (some of the management’s input, of course, and also LOTS of stories about employees who have been successful here). Create a way for employees to talk back, to give ideas, to be a part of the success of the company. We’d do it DOUBLE – print and online. And the online CANNOT be just a PDF of the printed piece. The two will complement each other and each will refer to the other. You get good information with one, but even more with both.