31 March 2008
Tesco's employee newspaper competes with the "red tops"
The One: “widely read, accessible and attractive.”
UK supermarket retail chain, Tesco, launched its employee newspaper – The One – this month. Styled like a typical UK “red top” tabloid, the newspaper is published fortnightly.
It brings breaking company news, entertainment and updates on staff benefits to more than 270,000 Tesco employees across 2,000 stores, depots and offices.
“We want to provide all our staff with clear, honest and current information about the Tesco business,” said Greg Sage, head of internal communications at Tesco.
The One immediately engages our staff and allows us to talk to our people in a straightforward and entertaining way.
Engaging newspaper
“The One immediately engages our staff and allows us to talk to our people in a straightforward and entertaining way. We also hope it will help them to champion Tesco with customers, friends and family, as well as reinforcing the Tesco values through its style, tone and content,” he says.
The Tesco newspaper launch comes after a three-month live test of the prototype newspaper among 5,000 employees at selected stores – plus a companywide special issue on Tesco’s “Fresh & Easy” US launch in November.
“I like finding out about everything that’s going on,” responded one staff member, “It makes you realize you’re part of something bigger.”
Brave move away from top-down communication
Tesco has appointed UK corporate communication company, Headlines Corporate News, to produce the new employee newspaper.
Independent employee research by The Oxford Research Agency says The One is widely read, accessible, attractive, and “an excellent way to communicate corporate news”.
Headlines managing director, Peter Doherty says, “Tesco has been characteristically brave in breaking away from traditional, top-down corporate communication to talk to people on their terms.
“We sat with Tesco people in the staff canteens and realized very quickly that if we wanted to win and hold their attention, we needed to compete with the national media.
We realized very quickly that if we wanted to win and hold their attention, we needed to compete with the national media.
“We've created a paper that's so good you’d pay for it. It’s entertaining, provocative, fun to read – and at the same time delivers essential corporate news and messages, to help people get more from their work and do a better job for Tesco and its customers.”
Dedicated editorial team
Tesco has a dedicated editorial team at Headlines producing The One, backed by the additional skills and expertise of 30 Headlines’ journalists, designers, online experts and business managers, who regularly deliver internal communication for more than 40 corporate clients.
Additionally, The One is printed on paper sourced exclusively from sustainably-managed forests and copies will be recycled after use.
Have your say
Company newspapers are a great way to communicate with staff – particularly front-line staff in a retail environment. Does this form of communication work in other sectors?
Where does it work best? Do you produce your own newsletter internally, or do you find it beneficial to have an external agency write the copy and create the final product?
Discuss these issues with other comms practitioners by joining the Internal Comms Hub members' group on the Communicators' Network.
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