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Inside Comm’ #15
6 Tips For Creating a Company Magazine

Helene Renaud

Author

Helene Renaud

Hello everyone, I’m Hélène Renaud, co-founder of Absolute Agency, and you’re listening to Inside Comm’.
During this podcast, we’ll explore the different issues and facets of internal communication in 2021! 🙂
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As this podcast is in French, we propose you a transcript of the episode below in English.
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The printed company magazine or in-house magazine

Here we are at the start of 2021, with lockdown still pretty much the deal for all businesses and the vast majority of employees stuck at home. With this in mind, I’d like to talk to you about a valuable tool used for internal communication to encourage people to interact and forge bonds.
I’ll call it the printed company magazine or in-house magazine!
Yes, I can already tell what you’re thinking… in a digital era, do we really need to print it? My response is crystal clear… yes.
For me, and those of you who know me well already know, this is a crowd favourite for any internal media mix, for several reasons.

The 3 reasons why you should consider an in-house magazine

Firstly, I believe in the power of paper, due to its calming aspect, synonymous with long, relaxing times…
It gives us a break from the excesses of digitalization and the onslaught of messages we receive all day long on our different devices.
A magazine, whether from an outside organisation or in-house, is therefore an ideal channel for escaping from the digital jungle and taking a break.
Despite falling out of favour a few years ago, it’s not by chance that just under 5 years ago Absolute noticed it was making a strong comeback in companies.

Secondly, we believe that an in-house magazine serves to unite people, breaking down the silos that dominate medium and large companies.
Using this tool to shine the spotlight on challenges, projects, teams and products means everyone knows more about a wide range of topics, and it boosts that all-important team spirit around the company’s overall goals.
Producing a recap of the magazines over the year offers an opportunity to take stock of the different departments and their achievements and ensure there’s a good balance, so that everyone is equally represented in the different editions throughout the year.

The 3rd reason for producing an in-house magazine for your company is to showcase your employees through personal profiles or hearing what they have to say.
Take the opportunity to present the teams, behind the scenes, or go for lighter, less corporate topics to learn more about colleagues.

All about content

Speaking of content… another benefit we see with in-house magazines is the chance to delve deep into topics rather than produce more of the brief, hot news type items readily found on the intranet.
An in-house magazine is therefore an ideal place for producing special reports and covering a subject in-depth, and also using different ways to present it (e.g. boxes, computer graphics, key figures or quotations in addition to running text).

Still on content, the primary job of an in-house magazine is to present the company jargon in a way that everyone can understand…

So how do you go about kicking off your company magazine project in general terms?
First of all, you need to be clear on the specific objectives, which management needs to approve, then set up a team of motivated colleagues in the company’s different departments (ideally with all jobs well represented).
This editorial team can be completely independent of management, ensuring it is as neutral as possible.
Once this core team is ready to go, don’t be afraid to get support from an agency for the writing or rewriting of texts, layout, printing and distribution.

And one last piece of advice to take on board! Today, and especially with COVID, we recommend that you send your magazines directly to your employees’ homes by post…
People really like this direct communication, and it unites people around the company’s goals more, with the whole family present!

I hope these tips have been useful and look forward to seeing you soon for another episode of Inside Comm’! 🙂

See you soon for another episode!

By Hélène Renaud