Are Online Publications the answer to your company's communication challenges?
They were at Union Pacific Railroad. Focus groups and surveys indicated that what its employees most valued in their company communications were accuracy and immediacy. In other words, they wanted to know the facts and they wanted to know now, not after the story has appeared in the evening paper. |
Meanwhile, Union Pacific was struggling to justify its monthly four-color magazine, along with a monthly "news" tabloid that cost more than $200,000 a year to produce and distribute to its 50,000 employees. They weren't getting the bang they wanted from their bucks. Because of the severe time lag in getting the message out, the grapevine was quickly becoming the information source of choice. It may not have been accurate, but it beat waiting and waiting and waiting.... |
The answer was a daily electronic newsletter distributed via the company's Lotus Notes system, mainframe computer, Internet and e-mail. Management was skeptical -- how could they fill a daily newsletter? It seemed impossible. But just six months after Tim launched UP Online, UP's first and only electronic daily publication, the skeptics became believers. Within a year, the newsletter was logging more than 50,000 hits a week. Since then, that number has tripled. And that costly monthly newspaper was quickly canned. Employees said they preferred their company news fresh, accurate and from the convenience of their computer terminals, both in the office and on the locomotive. |
The secret to daily electronic pubs: They're easier to produce than you think. You can get more information to your employees faster and easier, and save money, too. All you need is the right up-front planning, information gathering, multi-platform coordination and understanding what your employees want and need to know. |
Contact Tim and find out just how easy it is. As a consultant for your daily publication's start-up, he'll show you how to bring all the pieces together and make it happen at your company. It will not only change the way you communicate, it could very well change the way your company does business. |