Back to the Future in Comms

What can we learn from the classic print employee publications?
A hell of a lot!

There has been some buzz in the industry about whether “print” is making a comeback. It got me to thinking. Back in the 90s and early 2000s barnstorming around the world teaching a two-day workshop called: “Strategic Employee Publications.”

This was before intranets and online publications, so ALL my examples—hundreds of them—good AND bad, were pulled from industry print publications. As the editorial director at Ragan Communications, I had access to HUNDREDS of publications.

So I went back to my old presentations . . . and WOW. So many great examples and case studies we can learn from. Dozens of them. Plus, of course, some really funny examples of what NOT to do.

And I thought: “This is a workshop!”

Back then, I built the workshop around four categories:

1. Strategic focus. How does the publication handle the often-complicated, tricky topics like financials, initiatives, company strategy and goals, executive communication and industry news.

2. Employee interaction. Do they encourage employees to engage with the publication? Back then, it would come in the form of a letters section, roving reporter features, employee profiles, etc.

3. Writing and editing. How were the headlines, leads and quotes? Was it laced with useless jargon? How clear was the writing? How tight was the writing? Were they telling STORIES or rehashing press releases?

4. Design. I am not a designer, but I had one rule: Good design IMPROVES readability. It doesn’t HINDER it. A LOT of publications obviously had designers running amok, and the publications were impossible to read! Vertical text blocks, shaded copy you couldn’t even read, tilted words, all kinds of “creative” nonsense.

In this fun, BRAND NEW session, we’re going to take a trip back in time, and not only look at some great ideas, tactics, and best practices . . . but we’ll talk about how to apply them to TODAY’S online tools!

Buckle up ... this is gonna be a great ride! Hope you can join us!