News and features are about content as much as style

Newsletters and magazines serve a number of purposes in the commercial world. Some are designed to establish a brand, others to reach a wider market, some to inform and educate employees and others to cross-sell within the existing customer base.

All copywriting thrives on the availability of good content, but where some formats—such as press advertising or direct marketing—rely primarily on the style of communication and the immediate impact this can create with a reader, newsletter and magazine articles (even basic newsletter articles) have to be informative, stimulating, and interesting, and to achieve good content is crucial. Because of the amount of information they have to convey, magazines and newsletters must have a strong seam of raw material to mine, and this mine must never be worked out.

Researching the content for news items, reviews, interviews, and articles will be a key part of your role, and this is where copywriting and journalism have many parallels. The two disciplines require similar skills and abilities, but they are also very different from each other. Journalism is all about reporting the story as objectively as possible, while copywriting requires the writer to tell the story on behalf of the client. This is usually an objective and unbiased stance (any over-promotion within an article will result in loss of credibility), but you are always in the service of the person briefing you and your editorial will therefore be biased toward the marketing objectives of the client.

Magazines and newsletters rely on informative writing

Many, if not most, organizations have identified a need or an opportunity to send out a regular communication to their employees or customers. These differ from one-off communications (an individual leaflet or brochure, for example) in that they aim to communicate regularly with the audience, and build a strong, ongoing relationship with them.

Some magazines are big-budget productions led from the most senior parts of the business, while at the other end of the scale, newsletters often evolve from the ground up, frequently as a collection of memos and updates. Any professional publication will employ the services of a copywriter, or more than one in many cases, either in a core editorial management role or as a regular contributor of content.

Whether editing or writing for a publication, your starting point is to understand the different natures of a magazine and a newsletter. They have many similarities. Both are published regularly, feature a mixture of editorial, carry the client company’s message, and aim to inform and motivate the audience to act favorably toward the client. They can use the same types of format and structure, but where a newsletter’s function is to keep the audience up to date in a practical way, the role of a company magazine is to communicate the client’s brand values and create a sense of lifestyle (even in business-to-business).

The key is in what they are called. A magazine is a themed collection of interesting material, and a newsletter is an update on what’s going on. A magazine is a focal point for stories, comment, updates, and features, and the style in which this is collated and presented is a vital part of its character. Much more time and effort goes into a magazine than into a newsletter. Although it does need to be smart and well presented, it is the content of the information in a newsletter, not its image or the lifestyle it portrays, that counts.

“Far more thought and care go into the composition of any prominent ad in a newspaper or magazine than go into the writing of their features and editorials.”

Marshall McLuhan, communications theorist

What you need in your magazine or newsletter brief

A summary of the overall objective of the newsletter or magazine

For example: “to communicate our brand values to our customers, and by explaining about our business, to encourage them to call on our services more often”

A profile of the target readership, with insights wherever possible

For example: “predominantly male, aged 18 to 35, single, with a reasonable disposable income—they love our products, but they are not aware of the full range we offer” income—they love our products, but they are not aware of the full line we offer”

Details of the strategic messages that must be communicated

For example: “our line of men’s toiletries performs better than most premium brands, For example: “our range of men’s toiletries performs better than most premium brands, yet they don’t have a premium price tag”

Contacts for sourcing raw material (copy and images)

For example: “our formulation experts have the scientific data, our toiletries buyer knows the key selling points, and the brand manager has a tone-of-voice guide that you can use” the key selling points and the brand manager has a tone-of-voice guide that you can use”

A page count and information on frequency of publication

For example: “the budget will allow us to print 100,000 copies of a 32-page magazine six times a year”

A list of key clients involved in editorial and signing off

For example: “the toiletries buyer and head of beauty will need to sign it off, and the marketing director will have to give final approval before it goes to print”

The Internet and e-mail are very cost-efficient and effective methods of communication, and many newsletters and magazines are now published online. Digital media offer low-cost distribution and very rapid speed of delivery, but readers may only view the message a single time, and are often distracted by incoming mail or other sites that become available. Print offers messages a longer shelf life and the chance to be read in greater detail, and the opportunity to be displayed and discovered. It’s all about the best way to reach the audience, and it is common for print publications also to appear online. As the writer, your goal is to communicate effectively with the readers and developing a clear, human voice is more important than worrying about the format being used.

Creating and writing a company newsletter

There are many types of newsletter—from a few sheets of paper photocopied at the office, or a round-robin e-mail, to a sophisticated, full-color publication— and because they can be produced cheaply it’s not unusual to find “unofficial” ones thriving in larger organizations. These usually begin life as a series of memos, e-mails, or word-processed documents that someone collates and distributes to a group of people within their business. This is not such a bad way to begin because, if nothing else, it proves that there is enough content to support a regular communication (it can always be made more professional, but if there is no news there is no newsletter).

Many newsletters are digital, distributed through e-mail and the Internet rather than being printed. Blogs are simply personal newsletters. The process of creating the publication and its articles is the same, whether they are intended for print or online publication (except where the digital newsletter has to be written with the navigability of the text in mind—see chapter 8, page 201).

A basic editorial plan for a newsletter

Using an energetic, motivational, and inspiring tone of voice, British Airways News is packed with information and news about new initiatives and projects, and ideas for the staff about how to make the best use of the discounted travel that they enjoy.

The precise boundaries between a newsletter and a magazine are blurred. Usually, a newsletter will be a regular publication with up to 16 pages (black and white or color), usually letter-sized or A4, that is distributed free of charge to a defined readership. Anything more substantial than this would fall into the category of a magazine, reflecting the amount of extra time, effort, and money required. A newsletter audience is characterized by their common interest, for example the company they work for or a club they’ve joined.

When planning the editorial content of a company newsletter, consider how many issues will be produced each year, and how this fits with the company’s calendar. For example, when is the conference, when is their busiest period, are there seasonal trends? Avoid monthly editions, if possible—it’s a relentless slog to hit these tight deadlines unless you are part of a highly motivated team—and if you do publish monthly stick to ten issues a year, doubling up issues for July/ August and December/January to give you time to catch up (and have a break!). If the publication is biannual, your content has to be fresh for up to six months, so be careful to avoid too many references to dates or specific events.

From the earliest stage, try to work closely with the graphic designers to create a page plan. The designer should welcome your input, as you will be helping to shape the most successful approach to the brief. The main things to consider include whether there will be a full-bleed (to the edges of the page) photographic image or text-based news stories on the cover, whether you’re including an editorial comment and, if so, from whom, how the content will be split between short news items and more in-depth articles, and what these will look like. It is always a good idea to start with some lighter material (news in brief, for example) and to include a detailed feature article in the center.

Your newsletter ought to have a strong title and properly designed masthead and an editorial style sheet. The best way to create the overall publication title is to brainstorm words associated with the client’s business, avoiding anything that is a cliché or bad pun. It is better to play it safe than risk undermining the credibility of the publication by giving it a daft name. “Company News” is perfectly acceptable. Get the content right as a priority, and experiment with the style only if you are sure it suits the brand and your audience.

Next, create your schedule and the accompanying editorial calendar, based on the time available and the amount of copy required. You may want to leave some of your articles until the very end, adding them in just before the print deadline, so that your news is fresh and newsworthy. If necessary you can then quote for your time based on this schedule. It can take a surprising amount of time to gather information, conduct interviews, process and collate the raw material, and draft copy for your newsletter, so get off to a quick start and include some contingency time if you can. You’ll need as much time as you can get— and don’t leave the writing until the last minute, as this type of writing, unlike pure creative copywriting such as advertising or direct marketing, does not lend itself well to burning the midnight oil.

Creating and writing a company magazine

A carefully thought-through, well-written, and well-designed company magazine is a very powerful brand communications tool that can play a leading role in ensuring that a client’s employees and customers think favorably about their organization. As the writer, it is essential that you take the time to understand the context of your story fully, research the background, and present your information credibly to an informed audience.

Company magazines are far less common than newsletters, and are far weightier projects in every sense. Some are designed for customers, to encourage their loyalty and raise their awareness of the client’s full range of products or services, while others are created to carry internal communications in a highly professional manner. In both cases, company magazines are printed on high-spec paper, and make good use of quality photography and graphic design. Too often they are let down by poor editorial content. Gone are the days when pictures of staff handing over charity checks, getting married, or showing off their hobbies can hold the audience’s interest.

A typical editorial plan for a company magazine

The cover and front sections should be designed to win attention, while the middle to back sections should present material for regular readers.

Cover and front sections

Middle to back sections

Checklist: Editing

Whether you’re editing material supplied by the client or by other writers, or your own copy, you will be aiming to:

The process for creating a company magazine is similar to that for a newsletter, but there are significant differences. A magazine will have bigger budgets, larger circulation, and a higher profile than a newsletter. Because of this, every element of a magazine carries greater importance than the equivalent in a newsletter.

An article for the employees of a company that explains a new strategic initiative would be written differently depending on the type of publication for which it is intended. If it was for a newsletter it could have the following header: “Moving some manufacturing to China allows us to compete globally.” This is fact-based, clear, and unambiguous. The same material could be shaped for a more in-depth magazine, perhaps aimed at shareholders or investors: “Tackling the competition head-on: our new initiative opens up lucrative new markets.” This is more intriguing and thought-provoking, and draws in the reader to the body of the article.

As the writer you have to invest more time and energy in magazine articles and features than you would for a newsletter, and so does the designer. A newsletter is usually set to a fixed house style, but a magazine will include a lot more original design. When there’s enough freedom to develop design concepts and enough budget for quality imagery (photography and illustration are not cheap) a magazine is one of the most exciting environments for a graphic designer, and it is up to you to help the designer to achieve his or her best work by working with the words as the design ideas are being developed.

The tone of voice of the magazine is a major part of its style and impact. This will be the voice of the client organization, but it must be relevant to the audience. Throughout a company magazine the copy has to speak in a consistent and appropriate tone of voice, which can be easier said than done. Work closely with the client or the magazine’s editor to determine content, and with the designer to ensure that the words and imagery complement one another and that the designer understands the messages you’ve written and helps to highlight these.

Keep the magazine reader to the forefront of your mind. If it’s a loyalty magazine mailed out three times a year to a bank’s teenage savings account holders, it should be written with a teenage style, not a corporate bank style (taking care to avoid anything that might compromise the bank’s brand). The audience must be able to identify with the messages and feel that they relate to their lifestyle, so be careful to select the content carefully and be sure to shape it with them in mind.

A good way to maintain consistency is to create a word bank and copy style sheet (see page 18) for reference. Create and share these with those leading the project and signing it off, as this consultation process will enable you to explain your approach and incorporate their direction and guidance from the start (which is far better than doing it at the end).

Plan the main editorial content for your magazine six to twelve months in advance. This will help if it is intended that advertising space (which suppliers are often keen to buy) is to be made available within the magazine, as the advertiser will want to appear alongside relevant articles. There will be a number of articles, including feature articles, which you can compile well before the issue deadline, leaving yourself free to focus on the last-minute hot news just as the publication is being put to bed.

“At a magazine, everything you do is edited by a bunch of people, by committee, and a lot of them are, were, or think of themselves as writers. Part of that is because magazines worry about their voice.”

Chuck Klosterman

Fairmont Hotels’ customer magazine uses relaxed and sophisticated copy to present details of the company’s move into sustainable tourism. The importance of conserving local traditions and heritage is conveyed by maintaining an enthusiastic and inclusive tone of voice.

 

Interview: Conan Kisor, American Medical Association

Conan is the editor of a number of print and electronic publications for the American Medical Association (AMA), the largest organization for physicians in the United States.

I am 35, and the son of a newspaper editor and book critic for the Chicago Sun-Times. My mother was a children’s book critic, so there were lots of opinions at home! I did a four-year BA in English at Kenyon College in Ohio, and my first job was working for a public relations firm. I called them 50 times and they eventually let me become an intern with them. In my last year at college I started writing spots for the college newspaper, even though my mother made me promise never to work in the newspaper business— the competitiveness, long hours, and hard living takes its toll.

I stayed in PR for a year and then I got a job as a news reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago, a wire service that covered crime, government, and courts. I learnt the who, what, where, how, and why of journalism and developed my interviewing skills—it’s very difficult to try to get the person on the other end of the phone to say something quotable.

My “client” isn’t really a client, it’s the entire American Medical Association, my employer, and I focus on what we put in the magazine to convince the readership to keep their membership in the AMA, come to our meetings, and collaborate with us.

My publications are intended to demonstrate the many ways the AMA is working on behalf of doctors. The goal is retaining and growing our membership of 250,000 physicians and students, which is a broad audience. Our readers include everyone from 23-year-old students to 65-year-old physicians.

The doctors in our audience could be working in accident and emergency in a hospital or be in private practice in an office on their own, each having very different experiences within the medical profession. We focus on the broad, national issues that affect every member of the profession. Our tone of voice aims to be one that doctors trust. We try to include subject matter for everyone, but recognize that not every article will appeal to every reader.

We produce a number of publications. AMA Voice is a bimonthly newsletter mailed to every member. It has eight pages and plenty of photographs. I am the editor and I have two writers on my staff; together we produce a handful of publications. The writers draft the content. I write one or two articles and edit the rest and I also write some of the issue-based advertising. We’re part of a large, integrated in-house marketing agency of about 20 people— we handled over 13,000 creative projects last year from advertising and posters to magazines and newsletters.

We work with a design manager and five designers, and we share the process of working out the initial layouts. We follow a loose template and use consistent graphic elements in the publications, and we all use a booklet of house fonts and colors.

We plan the editorial and approve the content, which gives us a great deal of freedom. We highlight frontline medical doctors and students in a real-world approach—it’s not “topdown” and we include lots of profiles of our members. The issues don’t change much year to year, but the solutions and tactics we use do change. We are always asking ourselves “How can we demonstrate concisely that AMA is doing something to make the problem better?”

The big features, usually covering two pages, are planned a couple of months in advance. We are given the design input at the front end, and then plan a photographic style to suit the article’s content and angle. For example, the government’s payments to doctors under Medicare (for the over-65s) is a big problem. The government plans cuts in the payments to doctors by 10 percent each year, which makes it hard for older patients to find a doctor who can afford to take care of them. We will find those whose practices have to limit the number of Medicare patients they can accept, and report on how the AMA is working with lawmakers to help them. We use graphic headlines and imagery. For example, we’ll feature an ophthalmologist standing in front of an eye chart supported by a headline that uses “focus” as its theme.

“The issues don’t change much year to year, but the solutions and tactics we use do change.”

We have a staff photographer who travels around for us, and we hire local photographers too. We art direct them remotely by giving them a creative brief and the article to read, so that they can bring the story to life. Sometimes we fly a designer out to art direct the shoot in person too. The doctors are usually helpful, finding 15 minutes in their diary for us. We do a lot of phone interviews with doctors, but lots of the material hits the cutting room floor because we can’t publish it or don’t have room for it—800 words is our maximum for an article.

Our staff writers are highly informed. Two have been with us for three and four years, and we have a new writer on the team too. We have to be conversant in the subject matter and also in the correct tone of voice—getting the tone right is 80 percent of the battle. I aim to complete an interview in about 15 minutes, prepare a short article, and make sure that the headlines say a lot. We know our audience is intelligent but very busy, so the editorial has to be “idiot-proof ” so that our readers will “get it” in a couple of seconds as they flick through the pages. We sacrifice cleverness for simplicity. We’re translating for a general audience, so it can be strange to interview doctors who are leading experts in their field and then simplify their words.

After I hang up the phone I have to type up the interview straight away, as I can lose the essence of it, even with the stacks of notes I take. I bang it out as quickly as possible in order to keep it as fresh as possible. We use focus groups to learn the reactions to our work, and I am always astonished by the take some people have on it. For example, if the words “choice” or “life” appear in a headline, they tend to conjure up images of the debate on abortion in the US.

My advice to other writers is to try to imagine that you’re the audience—think about how much time you have to read these sort of articles, and what you will think about each article under these circumstances.

 

Interview: Sarah McCartney, Lush Times

This quarterly newsletter is the way Lush Cosmetics of insights and inspiration into the unique products the company creates. For over ten years Sarah has been its editor, looking after the words, as well as many other aspects of this significant newspaper-catalog. talks to customers worldwide. It features 40,000 words

Writing is like football: everyone can do it but you wouldn’t pay everyone to join your team. I’ve been working with Lush for 11 years, and as I’ve always had an interest in writing I jumped at the chance to write copy for them. My background is in science; after studying I was a media planner for an ad agency. I have a good memory, which helped me get good grades, but always had a range of interests: I studied classical clarinet but also played saxophone in a big band. I draw on my experiences when I write; it seems to me most people don’t fully observe what’s around them.

I write copy for products and promotions, but the bulk of my work is the newsletter. We produce Lush Times quarterly for a one millionstrong audience in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, and beyond. We don’t advertise, so Lush Times is our main piece of direct communication with customers. It’s informative and interesting, and provides a memory-jog about our products that helps with retail sales.

I don’t get a written brief; it is much more of an organic process. I speak to the directors about how we should tackle the content for each issue and my only rule is to include all current products within the pages. I include a lot of content written by customers, as we get so many great letters and contributions from all over the world. A lot of readers really enjoy the newsletter and reply to articles or suggest new products. It recently got so packed that we split it into two publications: Lush Times presents our viewpoint, and Scent features customers’ viewpoints, reviews, photos, and ideas.

I keep a notebook with me at all times and am always scribbling ideas about our products that I can incorporate into the newsletter. Things said in meetings provide good quotes and lots of material I can develop and build on. We promote the concept of “long candlelit baths” but are also committed to innovation and creativity; I always enjoy finding new and stimulating ways to talk about new products. I pick up ideas all over the place and use them in my work. Nothing is cheating—except stealing other people’s words.

There are days when you don’t want to write, but have to. You can’t just sit down and write good copy all day long. I surround myself with books, and make myself choose one of these, open it up, and find a word at random, which I then force myself to include in a sentence—it helps me to get into the flow of writing again. I like to go for a walk too; if the writing is proving really difficult I go to a park and sit on the swings. Swinging with my head back is really helpful!

We have a two-month lead time to create between 40–60,000 words, which doesn’t give us much breathing space. I tend to work in chunks, doing all soap or deodorant products separately. With soap products I tend to say little—there are only so many ways to discuss their benefits—and with others, such as moisturizers, I include lots of detail, facts, figures, supporting information. It’s all to do with the way customers use products.

I work with in-house and freelance designers; the whole creative team is busy all the time. We don’t have a fixed house style as we like to create a fresh, unique version every time. There is always a bit of give-and-take between design and copy, but we’re working to create the best effect on the page.

If we had to get all of the copy signed off we’d never get it to print, so I’m trusted to sign off my own copy. We share proofreading and give a collective sigh of relief when we get to the end, only to realize it’s time to start the next one!

I enjoy these challenges a lot, but writing is a difficult business. I’m not a carrot or stick person, so don’t try and bribe or push me into doing my best. I thrive when I’m given recognition for work I do, whether it’s sheer volume and organization, or the creativity I put into the finished text. I’m compiling a collection of articles we’ve published to create an archive for the business, and I’ve discovered that over the last 11 years at Lush I’ve written something like 1.6 million words!

“I include a lot of content that has been written by our customers in the newsletter.”

Generating quality editorial content

The fundamental role of a regular publication is to build a relationship with an audience, establishing rapport, trust, dialogue, interaction, and, in extreme cases, friendship. Your editorial content has to relate to the audience, and a good way to achieve this is to find out what they are like by creating two-way communication: invite them to write in, take part in competitions, fill in questionnaires, or comment on your website.

The information you glean will give you a strong sense of how to pitch the messages, and the precise tone of voice to use, but you must also present the client’s personality clearly and openly. Don’t simply reflect your audience; be confident and let the client have a stance, an opinion, a viewpoint. This will promote mutual understanding, and let the relationship develop.

The fundamental difference between writing for magazines or newsletters and other forms of copywriting is the requirement that you source your raw material. With most copywriting projects the bulk of your raw material—facts, figures, detail—is supplied by the client company, either directly or through the immediate briefing process. It’s up to you to decide how best to use it.

Journalists know all about researching the story, and in many ways writing for a magazine or newsletter is more of a journalistic than a copywriting challenge. A good journalist will focus on preparing the story so that it provides as much detail and background as possible, and will follow a format that presents the material objectively and unambiguously. Always lead with the most important, interesting, or relevant information, using sentences no longer than about 20 words and paragraphs with no more than three or four sentences.

When you are writing copy for a company magazine or newsletter, whether for the people who work for the organization or for its external customers, you will be combining your copywriting skills (creative, targeted, commercial writing) and your journalistic ability (balanced, researched, informative writing). Each of your articles or news items has to be accurate, provide detail, and hold the reader’s interest, but this is still copywriting and your finished copy has to reflect the organization’s tone of voice and overall strategic objectives.

As with all copywriting, your key principles must apply: identify and understand your target audience, maintain a consistent tone of voice that is relevant to your audience, and work hard to make sure every item is at least interesting, and compelling wherever possible. Unlike other formats, with a magazine or newsletter you have a range of copy styles to play with, so make the most of these.

Play to the strength of each type of article. These can include an editorial introduction, short news items, commentaries from key figures, interviews, analytical articles, and competitions. You can also feature readers’ letters or articles by readers, and don’t forget that the audience may be very interested in the advertising you include.

“If you don’t get noticed, you don’t have anything. You just have to be noticed, but the art is in getting noticed naturally, without screaming or without tricks.”

Leo Burnett

Look at the big picture: will it achieve the client’s objectives?

Before launching into writing your articles, stand back and consider the magazine or newsletter as a whole, as a series of regular publications that will provide a collection of information for the readership. Whether you’re dealing with a four-page, single-color news sheet or a glossy 48-page corporate magazine you should be thinking “how do we link the publication to the company’s overall strategic objectives?” and “how accessible will the key influencers in the company be, and are they supportive of the publication?”

Proving that good copy does not have to be highly creative, so long as it is clear, informative, and accurate, Pearson Education’s employee magazines work hard to ensure the audience is always up to speed on all of the essentials in their industry.

The editorial of this company magazine is closely tied to the strategic plans of the business. The articles and features help explain what the initiatives mean to customers and to the business, giving insights to both the head office and retail operations teams.

Planning the editorial as a whole

This can become very complex and before you know it you can become bogged down in all of the variables; the number of editions per year, the correct page counts, the best angle for features, the value of competitions, and the approach to imagery and photography will all have an impact on your budget and will need to be considered both in isolation and as a whole. Ground yourself by remembering one thing: you are writing a publication for a defined audience for a client with a specific objective. Every decision you make has to improve significantly the impact of your messages on the target audience and deliver the client’s objectives as effectively as possible. Focus on the written elements of the publication and let the others in the team work out the rest.

Drafting articles and interviewing for copy

News items are relatively straightforward to draft if you have a structure in mind—the real challenge is getting your hands on the raw material, especially if you want a good photograph to go with it. Contact key players within the organization and brief them about the sort of news you’re looking for, and how and when you want to receive it. Many professional people are put off by the thought of having to write copy, so reassure them that all you need from them is the raw material, ideally in brief bullet point format. Give them your contact details and a deadline, and interview them in person wherever possible.

Longer articles require a different approach. The designer should have a style sheet of sorts, and a typeface and size defined, and from this you should be able to work out a target word count. Remember, you are not a columnist, you are a copywriter, and no one wants to read your personal views.

Interviewing is the best way to source fresh new material. In many cases an interview has to take place over the phone. After sourcing your contact, begin with an e-mail or introductory phone call to explain who you are, who you are working for, and what you require. You can then book some time for the interview as, even over the phone, it may take up to half an hour. If you do meet face to face, a good approach is to bring a photographer (or even just a camera and lights) so that you can illustrate your article with a good mugshot.

Prepare your questions in advance but be prepared to wing it, and develop the craft of being able to scribble down responses, formulate your next question, and look the interviewee intelligently in the eye, all at the same time. Write up your draft copy as soon as you can after the interview, as you will otherwise forget some of the finer detail.

Include more than one interview in an article to make it more stimulating. If you’re talking to the director of part of the business, why not also talk to someone who works in the team? If you shape the article carefully it can provide great insight into the workings of an organization. Obviously, your role is to present the positive aspects and not to expose any weaknesses.

Structure for news articles

The basic approach is to spell out the story concisely in the headline, topping and tailing the piece with paragraphs showing some personality, and presenting the facts clearly in the main body copy.

Structure for feature articles

Feature articles can often take a more complex and adventurous approach, as below.

Competitions, letters, and editorial

These peripheral items should be included only if they can be fully justified. Too many company publications have been cluttered with boring news about someone’s fiftieth wedding anniversary or shots of a proud angler holding a giant fish caught one weekend. To generate quality material from your readers’ letters you must give them a brief and some direction about what you’re looking for. Ask them for specific comments about a core subject. Tempt them with a prize for the best letter and develop themes with them that can be carried through over different editions.

The editorial is a form of welcome, and is usually best placed on the opening pages. A familiar face is helpful, so a senior manager would be suitable. Keep it real, and don’t create a false editor—it could catch you out. It’s perfectly acceptable for you to appear as the editor yourself, if necessary, with your photograph and signature. In any event, it is more than likely you will draft the editorial column for the editor.

Competitions are also popular with readers, and these give them a reason to check out your next issue too. Whatever you do, keep the rules very simple, make it challenging, and always, without fail, include legal disclaimers explaining how the result is subject to availability of prizes and liable to change at your discretion. Estimate the response and the amount of handling this will take. A competition that is attractive to a reasonable-sized audience can create sacks and sacks of mail for someone to manage.

Internal communications are marketing communications

Internal communications have often been the poor relative of marketing communications, with “poor” being the operative word. However, with increasing global competition, new ways of working with suppliers and customers, new technologies, and changing marketplaces, companies are undergoing consistent change more than ever before. Keeping employees properly informed and briefed is becoming increasingly vital, and this can be achieved using the tools developed for marketing communications.

The audience for internal communications is very different to the external audience. To a certain extent it’s a captive audience that has a vested interest in what you have to say, but you can’t assume they are going to pay attention or buy into your message just because they work for the company. They may be more critical than customers (if they know the cold reality of life within the organization), but they are more likely to respond in a positive manner if the message is constructive and clear.

Traditionally the voice used for internal communications has been patronizing or overly formal. Messages from the top speak down to the staff on the ground, often use jargon or fail to explain the full context, and generally leave the reader cold.

You can overcome this by creating a fresh and upbeat tone of voice and using targeted copywriting to make the messages relevant, interesting, and compelling. Create a communications strategy and calendar to ensure all of the key points are covered and that each new piece builds on the previous one. There can be a lot of value in creating a word bank and company dictionary. Document whether a company’s retail network consists of “branches,” “stores,” or “shops,” and whether it referes to its people as “employees,” “staff,” “our people,” or even “you.” Define jargon that needs to be explained, such as “RDC” and “cascade communication session” (see page 20).

When you’re writing communications to staff, remember that you’re talking to a diverse audience, from senior directors to junior office workers, from people out in the field to those in head office. Finding a voice that suits everyone is your challenge. A key technique is to link your content to the overall company strategy. If the board have announced a new initiative then feature this in your communications and bring it to life by finding out what the implications might be for people in the business–as an overall group, as departments, and individually. Interview some store staff and some head office managers and pool the information to give everyone an insight into each other’s situations.

Your content has to be open, honest, and accurate. There is simply no point telling a demotivated workforce that there is a new initiative to save money by cutting back on their perks and making them work in a different way. If you’re talking to a tough crowd, make sure you show understanding and empathy. Find respected people in different areas of the organization who support the project, then communicate through them.

Stakeholder mapping can help you decide how to communicate effectively. Some of your stakeholders will be low interest, low influence—for example, the project delivery team. They’re not decision makers, but they need to know what’s going on. Think about the frequency of updates and how much detail you need to go into. In the initial “boardroom” stages they might just need monthly summary bulletins, but later on the updates might become detailed weekly or daily task lists.

In other cases you might be writing to someone who has high stakes in the project, such as an investor, who has a high level of interest and lots of influence. You need to turn these people into advocates for the company, gaining their support, and encouraging them to use their influence positively. If you need to sway their opinion your copywriting will need to work harder. You might want to create personal letters to be sent from the company directors, or perhaps provide content for face-to-face meetings.

Exercise: developing article-writing skills

Choose a magazine that you like, ideally one that is focused on a specialist subject in which you have an interest (football, music, travel).

Work out the audience profile by studying how the magazine is angled at the readership.

Prepare news
Make up a piece of news and draft it in three paragraphs, with a compelling headline and strong opening paragraph.

Draft an article
Take a topic that you know something about (or make one up) and draft a 400-word article for the magazine, making sure you relate to the audience.

Write a feature
Choose a topic relevant to the magazine and conduct some research into it on the Internet. Collate your notes, create a structure for them, and write the article as a 1000-word feature, exploring the pros and cons and drawing a clear conclusion.

Round-up

Newsletter and magazine articles have to be informative, stimulating, and interesting.

Researching the content for news items, reviews, interviews, and articles will be a key part of your role.

A magazine is a themed collection of interesting material, and a newsletter is an update on what’s going on.

The Internet and e-mail are very cost-efficient and effective methods of communication.

The process of creating the publication and its articles is the same for print or website.

Try to work closely with the graphic designers to create a page plan.

Create your schedule and the accompanying editorial calendar, based on the time available and the amount of copy required.

It can take a surprising amount of time to gather information, conduct interviews, process and collate the raw material, and draft copy.

Every element of a magazine carries greater importance than the equivalent in a newsletter.

The audience must be able to identify with the messages and feel that they relate to their lifestyle.

Before launching into writing your articles, stand back and consider the magazine or newsletter as a whole.

 

Case Study: Land Rover Onelife

Few brands are as well traveled and adventurous as Land Rover, and Land Rover Onelife is, in its own words, a truly global project with a worldly view, regularly heading to the ends of the earth in search of a good story. It uses beautiful imagery and combines high-profile contributors with stories “you won’t find in any other automotive customer magazine.” Deputy editor Christa Larwood found the time to tell us how they keep this thing on the road.

The Objective:

communicating Land Rover’s brand values

Land Rover Onelife is a biannual 68-page magazine that goes to owners of Land Rovers and Range Rovers bought in the last three years (they can opt out of receiving it); it’s seen as a benefit of owning a Land Rover. The client’s brief is that the magazine must reflect the adventurous, gutsy yet premium heart of the brand.

We translate the magazine into eight languages and distribute it to over 60 countries. It’s a full-time job; we don’t get any downtime. For each country we include a combination of global content and some pages with local news and information, which we source through local agencies. We also prepare pages here to appear in foreign-language editions.

The audience for Onelife is existing customers, so our remit is to build the brand, not sell directly. We create editorial using a lifestyle approach based on the brand values. Our tone is “the Freelander 2 enables us to go to an amazing place, exemplifying the Land Rover spirit,” not “we drove the Freelander 2 from A to B.” The characteristics of the brand are based on six “pillars” we all innately understand: authentic, adventurous, worldly, gutsy, premium, and sustainable. These are fantastic characteristics to editorialize, and all the values lend themselves to interesting content. As Land Rover is all about adventure and travel, it’s easy to do a good job.

We have space for four advertisements and include products such as Bang & Olufsen, which reflect our magazine and associate well with the Land Rover brand.

The Approach:

taking the editorial to extremes

The editorial team challenges itself to produce the most adventurous, unique stories possible. Onelife has explored Northern Canada’s Barren Lands on a road made of ice, journeyed to the blistering heat of the Libyan Sahara to catch a total solar eclipse, and dealt with Bolivian revolutionaries setting off pipe bombs in the middle of a shoot.

In the last few years, editor Zac Assemakis has pushed the magazine further than ever, particularly in its structure and content. A good example is the editorial treatment of the Freelander 2. Instead of communicating this new product in a conventional way, Zac decided to represent different features of the vehicle through a series of different stories, so the car’s interior was highlighted with a travel story “on the inside” of a hotel converted from a prison in Oxfordshire; the car’s styling was showcased with an exciting illustrated car chase created by a renowned US graphic artist.

We sometimes throw out all of the sections and dedicate the magazine to a theme: for example, we did a Paradise issue and a Carbon Neutral issue. As we publish just twice a year there isn’t much time for the customer to build a relationship with the magazine and elements within it, so we can be flexible and do it slightly differently each time.

The majority of the team is in-house and we have a number of external contributors to each issue. This adds variety and allows us to feature specialists and authorities—for example, we wanted to send someone to the edge of space and used Andrew Smith, who’d written a book on people who have walked on the moon. For our Paradise issue we sent Kevin Rushby, who has written a book about paradise, on a search for Utopia in the US.

The client gives us a lot of freedom; we’re very lucky. They appreciate good editorial and we tend to have only a few corrections. There’s a more rigorous sign-off when we’re involving Land Rover itself, but even this is usually mild. The client is sophisticated, not banging on about putting cars in everywhere!

The Result:

the magazine is helping to lead the brand communications

We want people to keep the magazine, and research shows we have a good retention, as readers keep it for a month or more and show it to others too. We measure our effectiveness with reader surveys; it is claimed that 6 percent of Land Rover customers bought or upgraded their Land Rover as a result of reading Onelife, a huge statistic for a customer magazine, showing what an effective medium it is.

The Association of Publishing Agencies has all sorts of statistics about customer magazines, and has awarded Onelife its “customer magazine of the year” title. Surveys show it’s considered a compelling read, as indicated by 75 percent of respondents, and showcasing the Freelander 2 was very effective: 23 percent of respondents requested a test drive as a direct result of reading the magazine. Overall, 52 percent of respondents took some action, compared to a 38 percent automotive average.

Land Rover is a storytelling brand, and the Onelife team “gets” the brand, probably because we’ve spent such a long time working with it. Land Rover is moving away from traditional views, and Onelife is seen as representing this—the magazine is doing absolutely what it should be.

 

Case Study: Kodak One Magazine

Donna Preston is director of worldwide branding and advertising for Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group, providing specialist services to the printing industry, including integrated graphic communications technology—digital printing, workflow systems, prepress, and printing solutions. International customer magazine One has won Gold Awards from the League of American Communications Professionals (LACP).

The Objective:

presenting the brand to a worldwide audience

Our company magazine is a brand and communications tool, aimed at building Kodak’s reputation and increasing the awareness of Kodak’s full range of services to our customer base, the worldwide printing industry.

We enable clients to produce highly personalized direct marketing. Using the data available to them they can create a personalized mailer that, for example, has the exact match of car make and color as the recipient’s own car. They can create very targeted communications. A key part of our digital business is the Kodak Versamark Print System. One of the jobs it handles is the printing of 80 percent of the lottery tickets in the US. Kodak offers a comprehensive line of analog and digital offset printing plates for commercial, newspaper, and packaging printing applications. Our printing plates are used on web and offset presses such as the huge Heidelberg and MAN Roland presses.

One magazine’s circulation is global, and the audience includes customers, prospects, print buyers, and leaders of printing and publishing businesses. We also print extras of the magazine for distribution at major trade shows.

The Approach:

tailoring the content for each geographical region

One magazine is published twice a year and is now in its second full year of publication. The full-color magazine, designed for Kodak customers and other leaders in the fields of printing, publishing, packaging, marketing, communications, and design, uses case histories and byline articles to focus on challenges that printers face and the strategies they are using to win in their marketplaces.

We called it One because we are “one powerful partner” and to express our commitment to partnership, showing that we are the single source for integrated print technology solutions. The stance, or the tone, of the magazine is not promotional or heavily sales-oriented. We demonstrate ways that customers are successful using Kodak’s solutions, and show the value that we add. This is a brand piece, not a sales piece.

The editorial is based on feature stories that align with product announcements, which are all consistent across the regions. We include an article dedicated to customer success stories that are tailored by the local teams to meet regional needs. We also feature a customer profile that shows how someone is taking a new approach to print that is unique. We manage our customer bases regionally, and the magazine is printed in different countries. It is translated via regional teams into Japanese, Chinese, German, Spanish, French, and other languages.

We operate an editorial board with different marketing representatives from our worldwide team. We brainstorm editorial ideas and PR opportunities. We will use one writer to write all of the stories, apart from a couple of columns that are written by the PR teams from the different parts of the business. That’s how we maintain a consistent tone of voice.

We plan the editorial twice a year, and at the start of the process there are opportunities for all sorts of feature articles and customer success stories. The editorial team decides on which will become the lead and secondary features, and sometimes we mark some ideas down as “potential future content.” Themes sometimes evolve, for example dedicating an entire issue to the packaging market or sustainability. We always match the customer success story to the editorial theme.

Kodak has its foundation in images, and our strong points are print and imaging, so we take the time to select the right cover image. We make strategic use of our Kodak trade-dress red and yellow colors in the cover design. The cover also has been personalized in a unique and interesting way to each recipient using solutions from Kodak.

The Result:

offering value to our customers

The quality of our print is a major focal point for us, and every image and every other aspect of our magazine has to be completely perfect. I am very proud that in the last three issues we have had only one very minor typographic error, where a letter was capitalized by mistake. That’s not bad!

Our readers can tell us what they think about the magazine via a URL, but most of our feedback comes from our customers talking to our sales reps. We measure the magazine’s success in terms of the overall success of the business; it is too difficult to measure the success of brand awareness in isolation from the rest of the marketing mix. The magazine is positioned to add value for our customers and supports other marketing programs. The support of our management and their belief in this magazine is integral to us. We are fortunate to have very supportive management that understands One magazine’s value.