Your publication's nice, ... but is it necessary?

`For as long as I've been in the profession, I've been hearing that print is passe'. I'm always reading magazine articles about the Internet, newsletters about E-mail, and articles about face' to-face communication.

`But the very fact that this information comes to me in magazines, newsletters and books shows the staying power of print. And our research confirms it.'

On a bookshelf in Bay City, Mich., my parents have a copy of my book, "How to Create Winning Employee Publications" - shrink-wrapped. It's nice that their son wrote a book, but they are not editors of organizational publications; they have no practical use for the information in the book, so they have no reason to read it.

How about you? Is your publication nice -- or necessary? Would your readers call your office if it were late? If your publication didn't exist, would senior management insist that you start it up?

Here's a quick way to find out. Complete this sentence: "My publication helps the organization meet its strategic objectives by . . ."

If you edit an organizational publication, your ability to complete that sentence convincingly -- in your work as well as in your words -- may influence your publication's viability. After all, some of the world's largest organizations have judged their employee publications to be dispensable. Gold Quills notwithstanding.

And why not? For as long as I've been in the profession, I've been hearing that print is passe. I'm always reading magazine articles about the Internet, newsletters about E-mail, and articles about face-to-face communication.

But the very fact that this information on the array of communication media comes to me in magazines, newsletters, and books shows the staying power of print. And our research confirms it: Employees at various organizations want various types of information in various media, including print.

In fact, much of our work is given to designing and implementing our training program in face-to-face communication. Certainly, the 4.3 million responses in our database and hundreds of participants in our focus groups confirm the role of face-to-face as the foundation for a balanced, comprehensive approach to communication.

But print has its strengths and its place. Messages in print are assimilated at the reader's, not the speaker's, pace. Print is portable, credible, authoritative. In a corporate-wide publication, the organization speaks with one unified official voice. And, just as it does with numbers, notation extends significantly the power of language.

But print can be expensive. Right now, someone in your organization, with your publication's budget in one hand and an axe in the other, is asking: "How can we justify money for this publication?"

As a place to begin assessing your publication's worth, if you haven't already done so, calculate the cost of your publication per employee per issue, and put a value or benefit on that cost. In other words, justify the organization's investment; the budget for a publication is just that, an investment.

What is the value of an organizational publication? What makes an organizational publication necessary? The purpose of an organizational publication is to secure readers' commitment to management's plans by showing readers that those plans are in their self-interest.

To clarify the point, at our Dialogue in the Desert Workshop on Publications, I ask participants to complete the following exercise:

Step 1: In the left column, write the goals of your organization or the issues facing your company, in order of importance: return on equity, trust, world-class quality standards, attracting innovative employees, teamwork, and so forth.

Step 2 In the right column, again in order of importance, write down the interests of your readers: job security, chances for advancement, benefits, the reasons behind decisions; the organization's plans, and so forth.

Step 3: Next to the word "Story", for instance, write the headline or topic of your last story -- or speech or news release or video script.

Step 4: If the story addressed one or more of management's goals, draw a line out from the story topic to those goals, on the left. If the story addressed your readers' needs, draw a line out to the right, to those interests.

You see the point. Only stories that address both business issues and goals and readers' interests are necessary. And the more lines you have going upward in both directions, the more valuable the story.

On the other hand, lines going only to the right indicate the editor's preference for entertainment over substance (hobbies, for example); lines only to the left might indicate a trust gap, or a lack of tailoring the message to the readers' needs, a misuse of the medium.

Of course, to enumerate management's goals, it requires being a strategic business partner with management. You must be involved in the planning process. At least you know the organization's plans, including the reasons behind them, well enough to publish them and gain understanding, acceptance and commitment for them.

And to know your reader's interests, you have to research them, quantitatively and qualitatively.

In other words, the necessary publication rests on the twin pillars of strategic planning and valid measurement. Without these disciplines, it's too easy to retreat into technique divorced from purpose, and to create a publication that's, well, nice: entertaining, readable, a diverting perk -- but, finally, disposable.

An organizational publication is a tool; its value resides in its usefulness. Decide why your publication is useful, and tell your readers how to use the tool.

I asked the editors of several organizational publications why theirs are necessary. Hare, my purpose is not to show how the editors bring their publications to life with writing, editing, photography and design, but simply to highlight reasons their publications are necessary. If you'd like to see the publications behind these reasons for being, I've included their addresses.

1. Shores the organization's plans in coherent way:

At Allstate Insurance, the chairman and CEO, and the president and COO meet with some employees to explain and discuss the company's future and to field questions. The all-employee publication brings the dialogue to all employees. (Allstate NOW, Carole Gillham, editor, Allstate Insurance Co., Corporate Relations, 2775 Sanders Rd., Ste. F4, Northbrook, IL 60062-6127)

2. Shows how the organization meets the needs of customers and shareholders:

With courage and candor, US WEST explained what the company is doing to reassure investors following a disappointing stock performance, and to correct service problems following reengineering, all in a single issue Vol. 7, No., 210. (US WEST Today, Lisa Best, editor, US WEST, 7800 E. Orchard Road, Room 300, Englewood, CO 80111)

3. Clarifies and advances the organization's culture:

The necessary publication is about more than financial performance. Constituents must see their organization's passionate commitment to service embodied in human form, and must feel unified behind common values, ideals, and purposes. Measure is the "glue that holds Hewlett-Packard together," according to Editor Jay Coleman, ABC. "It's an examination of trends that are common throughout H-P and an ongoing reemphasis that the seven corporate objectives are alive and well." (Measure, Jay Coleman, editor, Hewlett-Packard, Corporate Communications, 3000 Hanover St., MS 20BR, Palo Alto, CA 94304- 1181)

4. Aligns readers' interests and management's goals:

With 180 locations around the world, "It's critical that Stone Container employees understand the big picture -- the overall goals of the organization and how it functions. It's also very important that everyone understand how they fit into the organization," says CornerStone Editor Ellen Fowler. "To do this, we select stories that reinforce our employees' contributions and achievements, and show how they support the company's strategy." (CornerStone, Ellen Fowler, manager, Stone Container Corp., Employee Communications, 150 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60601-7568)

5. Heightens and demonstrates its value through planning, research, and measurement:

San Antonio-based insurer USAA devoted the Jan. 4, 1995, issue of Highlights to an in-depth report on an employee communication audit and the plans that emerged. In June's, special issue Editor, Liz Gusich accepted a Gold Quill for "Communications Audits and Research." (Highlights, Eric Whittington, editor, USAA, Employee Communications, D-3E, 9800 Fredericksburg Road, San Antonio, TX 78288-0004)

6. Is tailored to its specific audience:

"Walgreen's is no buttoned-down IBM," writes Editor Laurie L. Meyer. "Though large, we're a down-to-earth, fairly folksy company. We try to keep the publication friendly and approachable. The bottom line is this: Before I'm a communicator, I'm a retailer. And I'd better understand what my retail company needs and wants from its publication." (Walgreen World, Laurie Meyer, Walgreen Co., Corporate Communications, 200 Wilmot Road, Deerfield, IL 60015)

7. Is a catalyst for communication:

Of course, a publication is part of a larger communication process. The necessary publication serves a variety of purposes within that process, stimulating discussion and supporting other communication efforts. At Texas Instruments, the Dallasite plays several roles: encouraging two-way communication, modeling credible communication, drawing and holding all employees' attention on key strategies, enhancing business literacy. (Dallasite, Don Geiger, ABC, editor, Texas Instruments, P.O. Box 650311, MS 3940, Dallas, TX 75265)

8. Is a communication resource:

The necessary publication need not be an expensive, four-color production; it's a resource, not a diversion. Spartan News, Gary Evey, editor, Spartan Stores, Inc., 850 76th St. SW, Grand Rapids, MI 49518)

9. Equips and frees readers to serve:

"The JD Journal is necessary," writes Editor John Gerstner, ABC, "because it is the single, company-wide source of information about how the company is doing, where it is headed, and what it needs . . . Hans Becherer, Deere chairman, . . believes his job is to create a sense of direction and vision for the company, . . . and create an enabling environment in which employees can feel comfortable asking questions, helping to promote change, and seeking better ways of doing things. The JD Journal's job, then, is simply to help our chairman to do his job by communicating management's vision, goals and concerns." (JD Journal, John Gerstner, ABC, editor, Deere & Company, Moline, IL 61265)

10. Focuses attention on essentials:

Looking back on his six Gold Quills for Weyerhaeuser Today, Bill Boyd, ABC, (now with AT&T Wireless Services, Cellular Division) observes that the publication's biggest contribution was "to advance items on senior management's agenda and force decisions on the way the company would go on certain issues. I needed answers on stories. That means decisions had to be made." Boyd cites the diversity issue as one that `pulled no punches.' We put out the numbers and quoted employees saying frank things. In working with women and minorities, we advanced the cause; our numbers prove it. The cumulative effect of themes repeated over time is to communicate what's important to the company." (Weyerhaeuser Today, Weyerhaeuser Co., Corporate Communications, CH 1J32, Tacoma, WA 98477)