Is the employee newsletter dead?

When it comes to choosing communication channels, employee newsletters are viewed as an anachronism by most organizations, harkening back to the days when publishing required manual layout, typesetting and the assistance of a graphics or print shop.

Like other traditional communication vehicles, newsletters nosed out into traffic on the digital highway, settling into occasional pockets created for them by emerging online media. But unlike blogs or tweets, newsletters are about as sexy as the petrol-leathery smell of ink drying on an offset press.

So what? Traditional newsletters have lost some luster, but we shouldn’t be too quick to say print is dead. It may be the communicator’s best option when it comes to non-tethered employees-construction crews, manufacturing or mailroom personnel, for example, who may have little or no computer access at work (at least until we can afford to provide an iPad for every employee!)