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Planning your publication

At the beginning of the internal communications process you’ll usually start with several blank sheets of paper.

How will you go about turning this gaping space into an informative publication that incorporates a good mix of serious and light-hearted stories; a balance of stories from different sectors and geographical egions; and high-priority key messages?

Like any journalist working on a newspaper, magazine, radio, or television, to get your news stories you’ll need to work your contacts. So spend some time identifying your key contacts – consider those who can provide you with the tip-offs you need to get started.

This maybe different in each company, but a good basic guide is:

Manging Director/Board - (key strategic messages, high-priority pan-regional stories)

Local management - (for the main stories from each patch)

Talk to each of these people at the beginning of each month and find out what they think should be included in the next issue of the newsletter, and who you need to speak to for further details on each story.

Also rely on friends that you have within the organisation – a brief chat over coffee or lunch could provide you with an interesting story (for example, perhaps someone has done something entertaining for charity; or has an unusual hobby). If it interests you, it is likely to interest your readers.

Another source of news is ‘diary’ events – things that you know will happen during the period in which you’ll be preparing the newsletter.

Include your contact details in each newsletter and encourage readers to contact you with potential stories.

Prioritising stories and getting the balance right

You’ve worked your contacts and you now have a list of potential stories for the next issue.

The likelihood is that you’ll now have too much to include in your newsletter.

To help you decide what to follow-up and what to leave out, spend some time prioritising your stories and ensuring that you have a good balance of material which is representative, as far as possible, of each sector and of each region.

There is no absolute right or wrong when it comes to balance and priority – but to help you fine-tune your contents for each issue, ask yourself the following questions:

Are the main strategic key messages and priorities adequately reflected?

Is the number of stories for any particular sector or region disproportionate? (If it is and you need to make cuts later on, then you should consider cutting from the area that has the disproportionately high story count).

Do you have at least one light-hearted ‘human interest’ story to break-up the heavier material? (Always try to include at least one item that reflects the wider interest of your readers away from the world of work, such as a charity event, etc).

You should aim for a good mix of stories from all areas in each publication so that the newsletter is representative and inclusive for all staff. However, always bear in mind that it is impossible to get a perfect balance in each issue because, to a certain extent, your story list will be dictated by what’s going on.

If you become aware that a certain sector or region is always under-represented each month then you may need to raise this with the appropriate head of sector or operations to ensure that you are getting the necessary leads from them.

Preparing your story list

You now have a prioritised and well-balanced list of stories for your forthcoming newsletter.

It’s useful to put this into a table which you can then use as a check-list through the month to make sure that everything is included.

It can also be helpful to e-mail this to your management team so that they know what will be in the next issue and can send you alterations and additions if circumstances change or a big issue arises.

Keep the table simple – we advise including brief details of each story, your main point of contact for details, and perhaps each contact’s phone number or e-mail address. Everyone can then see what is planned and who is responsible for each story.

Keep your story list refreshed when you speak to your key contacts at the beginning of each month.

You may also wish to include a forward planning section for stories that maybe covered over the next few issues.

Setting copy deadlines

When you send out your story list on e-mail it is useful to include copy deadlines so that everyone is clear about the cut- off date for each issue.

Working backwards, these should include: the publication distribution date; the date for final, approved copy; and the general copy deadline.

When planning these you should give yourself enough time to:

• research, write and approve with the original source all stories;
• get final copy approved by the managing director; and
• lay-out and design the publication.

The course of communications rarely runs smoothly and you should always be prepared to be flexible and incorporate a late-breaking story or big issue at the last-minute (right up to and including design stage). The point of copy deadlines isn’t to prevent this; it is to ensure that you don’t get everything at the last minute!

© Adrian Ruck MCIPR