With digital on the rise, do people still care about the printed word? Neil Gibbons reports

The death of print has been greatly exaggerated. Talk to digital evangelists about traditional media and they scoff, as if you’re talking up the anachronistic benefits of steam engines, telegrams or outdoor toilets.

And yes, newspapers and magazines are undergoing an unprecedented period of change, with free, interactive, multimedia content rendering some venerable publishing institutions redundant. But does that mean we’re witnessing the end of internal magazines as a means of employee engagement? Are the days of printed internal magazines numbered?

“We’ve been hearing that print is dying for more than 20 years!” says Suzanne Peck, business development director at internal communications and publishing agency Sequel Group. “There’s certainly been an upswing in internal communications moving online as those organisations with computer-accessible employees see the advantages, but equally, organisations with more disparate audiences are still using print to engage people.”

That said, Sequel has seen the digital/print mix of its business shift to around 60/40 over the last year but, adds Peck, “the smell, feel and buzz that the good quality printed magazine can bring is still popular”. And that seems to be one of the saving graces for the printed medium: people like it.

“Print is an investment of time and money and makes employees feel they are valued,” says Clare Oldfield, head of customer publishing at magazine and corporate communications agency Wardour. “Magazines are passed around and are retained as reference by the audience and give a visible sense of belonging to an organisation. They remain a great way of driving employee engagement.”

She cites Millward Brown’s Advantage Study research on magazine effectiveness which shows the benefit of the medium generally – an average of 25 minutes is spent reading customer magazines.

In fact, the predilection for printed media can be seen across the board, even among companies that are digitally quite savvy, as Stuart Hyslop of Surrey House Communications points out. “Our clients, including leading edge digital companies such as Sony, still value in printed publications. Not all people – even in a company like Sony – usually have access to a computer. So, in most companies, not everyone would get to see an electronic publication.”

The important thing, he says, is to view internal magazines as just one part of the internal comms mix – although he adds: “No one has yet come up with a more effective form than a publication – whether in an electronic form or printed.”

So there remains a strong appetite for traditional internal magazines. While they’re not dying, says Rachel Thornton, communications director at internal comms agency scarlettabbott, “they are, quite rightly, evolving and need to work even harder and deliver a real ROI to retain their slice of the IC budget. There’s a lot of competition for ‘brain space’ nowadays and all employees are sophisticated consumers of content. Your internal news magazines need to compete with the red tops, the broadsheets, with TV news, radio and every consumer title your people might pick up on their breaks, on the train home or even in the evening or weekend.”

Which means, of course, there’s all the more need for sustained innovation in internal publications.

“Internal comms teams should look at new forms of engagement to deliver a greater visibility of results, a greater sense of engagement, and a more powerful way to deliver messages to colleagues,” says Paul Squires, head of digital at Summersault Communications. That’s not to say he’s not a fan of printed magazine, though. He warns against phasing out traditional printed communications. “Companies should re evaluate what they want their internal comms strategy to achieve in the light of the full range of tools available – which is increasingly likely to include digital.”

Harriet McGann, co-head of editorial, corporate publishing for agency Redhouse Lane Communications, certainly doesn’t believe that the days of print are over. “The clients we speak to don’t either. It all depends on the audience. If your employees are working in warehouses or driving lorries, then clearly a printed publication is the most effective way to reach them. You need to start by understanding your audience and its needs, but focus first on what it is you want to communicate – the message should dictate the channel and not the other way around.”

It’s that understanding of the specific needs of the internal audience that should dictate the old media/new media mix. “Some of our clients have geographically disparate workforces, who don’t have PC or internet access and rarely visit HQ,” says Rachel Thornton. “An e-mag wouldn’t cut it. Of course, if your workforce is made up of generation x and y-ers with PC and internet access, you may well embrace the great range of techie and on-line solutions available.

“We find organisations with employees who have access and appetite for on-line content generally choose a mix and match approach. Regular on-line ‘hot’ news and print for the deeper reflective content.”

But if print is so treasured, why the stampede to new media? Because it brings with it many benefits of its own, says Oldfield. “The benefits of digital are many, but centre mostly around cost effectiveness, the ability to infinitely measure and of course environmental issues,” she says. “Environmental issues are an increasingly important component in our client’s equations and shifting the paper/digital balance helps address carbon issues.

Some of Wardour’s clients have now chosen to go all the way and replace paper-based comms with digital solutions, designed around rich media and enhanced audience interactivity. For one client, it produces a bi-monthly internal e-zine based entirely on video content, “which has proved highly successful with opening rates of 95%-plus” she adds.

Likewise, Redhouse Lane has seen its clients embracing the benefits of using digital channels to achieve their goals. “We have noticed many budgets drifting to digital channels for a variety of reasons, usually under the banner of ‘efficiency savings’,” says McGann. “You cannot ignore the growing importance of mobile and digital channels. If internal communications is about curating real-time conversations around key business issues, then using digital channels to sustain and shape that dialogue has to be the way forward. Printed magazines can form part of this strategy but ultimately digital formats win out on many more levels.”

So is it possible to integrate printed and digital communications into a single internal comms strategy? That will depend on the individual company’s audience and strategy, says Summersault’s Paul Squires. “It is not difficult to integrate them, but again, you need to go to the heart of the matter. How is your comms team functioning? Are you able to shape them to write for both print and web through a common schedule? Do you have a planning capability that can bring the two channels together? Do you know which departments in your business will appreciate – and act on – each medium? It isn’t hard to bring the two together, as long as it’s well thought through, and the channels are interwoven, rather than separated, and as long as all of your channels are accurately measured.”

He suggests organisations ensure that their planning and strategy allows all of their channels to make the most of their respective benefits, without making colleagues feel either over-compensated or isolated by spending too much of your energies down one route. “Intranets, digital TV, video and SMS are great tools, but they are as much a part of a mix as conference calls, in-person meetings, magazines and town hall briefings,” he says.

Sequel is a firm advocate of integrating old and new media. “Our ‘dream’ client work focuses on using digital content for updating and breaking news and supporting that information with a printed publication to deliver the wider context - the why, when and how, as well as that important ‘what’s in it for me?’ question,” says Suzanne Peck. She points to Essex County Council, which produces an employee magazine called Zest and support this with an online ezine called 7 Days which can be accessed by employees at home or at work.

But Redhouse Lane maintains that integration only makes sense if there is a strong business case for it. “There are always trade offs,” says McGann. “But what’s most important is the message and context of the content. It’s smarter to invest in the content first and then think about the best way to deliver it.”

For best practice, Squires suggests looking to larger corporate companies. “There, you will see increasingly innovative, well-thought-through and well-executed strategies which marry print and digital in a way that their audience can understand and act upon,” he says.

According to scarletttabbott’s Thornton, the transition from print to digital media shouldn’t obscure the basics: “Great design, credible, meaningful content, journalistic copywriting and great photography of colleagues (not the board) are must haves. Real engagement is about trust in your manager, visible leadership, honest conversations about performance, genuine involvement in decision-making and recognition and celebration of a job well done. But don’t waste time on ‘snazzy’ engagement techniques if you need to do work on the basics. It won’t hit the mark.” 

Changing the landscape

Wardour’s work for the Landscape Institute’s 6,000 members is an example of the changes afoot among internal publications. 

In 2009, Wardour was asked to review the Institute communications output. It recognised that LI members, who are landscape architects, wanted to hear news about their career in a different way and get regular updates and in sight about their industry. Wardour recommended moving from a monthly magazine to a quarterly magazine and a fortnightly emailer, which drives members to the LI website. 

“The magazine is freed from the minutiae of the day to day and concentrates instead on the bigger picture and analysis, while the emailer delivers regular news updates,” says Claire Oldfield. “A communication every two weeks means there is a healthy dialogue between the LI and its members, which reinforces a sense of community among the profession.”