Employee newsletters and magazines are meant to be read by employees and, at times, their immediate families. They tend to focus more on what employees are doing than on what the organization is doing. Employee newsletters are tools to communicate with employees about the news, issues, concerns, and developments relating to the organizations they work for.
They frequently focus on employees: new employees, promotions and transfers,
internal and external accomplishments, awards, and community involvement and leadership
efforts.
Why Have an Employee newsletter?
In-house publications need a mission statement: it tells employees what its purposes is, and it helps the people who edit and write for it find and keep their focus.
An important reason for having a newsletter is to inform employees about policy and changes in the organization, and to get feedback from them. Newsletters facilitate networking within an organization.
Employees find out what activities the organization is involved in and what people from other departments are up to. In this way, employees get to know each other, thereby forming horizontal and vertical links.
Newsletters promote a sense of belonging. By including personal information, such as stories about important events in the lives of employees, a newsletter can turn a big organization into a family.
Stories about your organization’s successes, emphasizing the role of staff, help employees to develop a pride in the organization and a pride in themselves as its employees.
A Good In-House Publication…
Is honest: You don’t develop or encourage loyalty by lying to people. organization publications have to tell the truth, even when it is unpleasant. On a practical level, it is hard—at times impossible—to hide bad news, and it is better that employees learn it from their own bosses than from outside media or, even worse, the rumour mill.
Covers the organization and its people: You cover the organization because that is what all the people there have in common. You cover the people because they are the ones who make the organization work. There has to be a balance between news about what the organization is doing and about what its employees are doing. That balance will shift from time to time and issue to issue, but it must always be present.
Supports the organization and its mission statement: Part of any in-house publication’s own mission statement is to improve organization morale, dedication, efficiency, and effectiveness.
Is written for all employees: It is inclusive, not exclusive. Anyone and everyone who works for the organization, from top management to those earning the lowest wage, are included in the publication’s readership. It should be a publication that all of them want to read because all of them feel part of the organization, and are interested in what is happening to it and to their fellow employees.
Uses lots of names and photos: People
like recognition and appreciation. They like to know that they are part of something
important, and that they are contributing to making it work. In-house publications
recognize the time, efforts, talent and dedication of all employees.
Is entertaining: It is interesting and fresh and always contains a
bit of the unexpected. This requires the editor to do some digging to find stories.
You might find a organization accountant who is also in a jazz combo, a mechanic who is also a
gourmet chef, or someone in marketing who has had a short story or some poetry published.
Is informative: It keeps everyone informed of what has
been going on and—when possible—what to look forward to in the future.
Is appropriate: A publication must fit into the
organizational culture. A magazine for a financial organization—bank, brokerage, or
mortgage lender, for example—will have a different tone and texture than one for a organization that makes skateboards,
swimsuits, or electric guitars. The publication should use vocabulary, content and a style
that the majority of its readers are comfortable with.
Looks good: Even though it is a organization publication, your readers will automatically compare it to the other publications they read. You might not be able to compete with national magazines in terms of content or the quality of your writing or photography, but you can still produce a publication with a clean layout and clear writing—one that looks professional and is easy to read. This is especially true give the easy access to desktop publishing software.
Good
In-House Editors…
Editor of an in-house publication is a manager. and has the same three responsibilities that all managers have.
he will have to:
Plan the actions and evaluate their results. Editors produce publications according to a regular schedule, and are given access to the staff and budget that they need to do so. The staff might be their own employees, someone in another department doing it as an “extra duty,” or a professional writer or photographer hired as a contractor. Editors decide what stories are going to be in each issue and who will write them. They also edit them to make sure they are ready and suitable for publication. In order to choose stories, editors have to know what is going on. This means they should regularly talk to people from all departments and divisions, and feel comfortable enough to ask them what is going on. Not all stories are necessarily “good news.” Even though their primary loyalty has to be the organization, an in-house editor still has to be able to tell the truth—even when it is an unpopular one, such as layoffs or cost cutting. The editor should remember that the organization publication will often be the only place that employees can go to read the organization’s point of view on the matter.
Provide standards and guidelines. Editors have information, personnel, inventory, budgets, schedules, and materials. They can also provide writers with a sense of context and subtext: how a specific article or picture will be used and what its purpose is in terms of the organization’s own goals. Their duties include letting other managers know that they are doing a story on someone in their department, or on the department itself, and discussing what is newsworthy. Since everyone involved works for the organization, they might also discuss the slant of the story and what points to emphasize. The editor might also be responsible for getting clearance for an outside writer or photographer to come in to do a story, and introducing them to the appropriate people. They are the primary sources of everything that their teams need.
Protect the jobs of employees and ensure recognition of the efforts done. Editors and their staff have to focus on their assigned tasks, no matter what other short-term projects or problems arise within the organization. Good editors, like good managers, make sure that their people can do their own work, no matter what else is going on. They also make sure their people get recognition for their work. Recognizing an individual’s contribution is an important form of protection—job protection. It also adds recognition and credibility to the publication as well as to the people who write for it. If the people who write for you get the benefits of recognition—become well known and respected—more people will want to write for you.
Keep in mind while Writing and Editing for an In-House Publication
The most important point every journalist needs to remember—whether they are writing for the largest newspaper in the country or a organization publication : Accuracy That implies to have the facts straight, the names spelled properly, their right titles and job descriptions, and write down exactly what people said—word for word. Make sure that you have all of it correct, read it back to them. Give them feedback as you interview them to make sure that what you think they are saying is really what they mean to say.
Give the whole picture: When it comes time to write an article, use the standard journalistic formula.
Start the story with: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. By the time you have answered
all those questions, you’ll be at the end of the story.
Keep your sentences short, simple, and focused. Know what you are writing about and stick to the subject. Don’t wander off into other topics. You should also stop and ask yourself how much your “average reader” can be expected to know about the topic, or the person you are writing about, and then write “to” that average reader.
If you are editing a story, make sure that all of the above rules have been followed. Then write a catchy headline that sums up the story.
What Sort Of Stories Go Into It?
One of the axioms of journalism is: “All news is local.” People
read stories that interest or affect them in some way. A new round of price hikes by
OPEC in the
Here are some suggestions to be really "local".
Find out what employees do outside of the office. Have a band or musical group? Have an interesting hobby? Had a poem published? Do any sort of community volunteer work? Has anyone been a vacation to a remote or interesting place? Received some sort of commendation or recommendation for anything they have done?
Are any employees getting married? Expecting a baby? Or just had one? Is anyone in the hospital? Has anyone died recently?
Who is new to the organization? Who has been promoted? Moved to a new department? Are there any new procedures to announce? Any changes in employee benefits? Has anyone set or broken any organization records for sales, efficiency, safety?
If there’s a new service or service line coming out, or a new push on an existing one, how will it affect the employees? Ask them how they plan to handle the challenge.
One question that reporters regularly use to come up with story ideas on “slow news days” is simply: What are people talking about? Why?
Template:
E-mail newsletter
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