A publishing sector that could greatly benefit by switching from print to online is corporate communications. I had an interesting discussion today with the corporate communications editor of Akzo Nobel in the Netherlands. This 64,500-person pharmaceutical & chemicals company will soon switch to online publication of its internal corporate magazine, sent to employees in more 80 countries.
For almost a century, Akzo Nobel has published its internal magazine in print, currently bi-monthly. But online has two advantages over print: The ability to publish or update in real-time, and not be locked into a printer’s weeks or months of lead-time. And the ability to offer multimedia content.
Corporate employees are among the groups with the world’s highest percentage of Internet access. But you might be surprised to know how few corporations have switched their publications to online.
However, companies needn’t switch all their corporate publications to only online. There are still prestige benefits in ‘showcase’ print publications sent to clients and investors.