NonProfit PR Awards: Internal Publications

Campaign: ZooView: Online Employee Newsletter

Winner: San Diego Zoo

The San Diego Zoo’s monthly online employee newsletter, “ZooView,” is designed to keep staffers informed about goings-on and to support the zoo’s conservation and education mission.

In 2008, the San Diego Zoo’s executives conducted an internal survey, the results of which indicated that 60% of employees felt like they weren’t being given enough information about the zoo’s communications efforts surrounding this mission.

To rectify this problem, the ZooView editor worked with the communications and conservations teams to develop an editorial calendar that would reflect current events and successes in the context of the zoo’s top 10 conservation efforts.

Articles about these conservation efforts were then written by employees, thus increasing their own knowledge about ongoing green practices.

The new ZooView newsletter approach was well received by employees. Plus, ad hoc interpretive surveys of individual departments reveal that the vast majority of staff members are now able to cite one or more conservation project.

Honorable Mentions:

AICPA: Team Network News—AICPA’s Team Network News provides team members with the tools and resources required to be successful and productive in the workplace, and inspires staffers to become involved in culture-building efforts and to volunteer in citizenship activities.

Canadian Automobile Dealers Association: Newsline—This bilingual internal news publication gives employees a monthly dose of information about the association’s initiatives, having been revised in late 2008 to also have a marketing appeal.

University of Texas: 2008 Southwestern Medicine—The UT team made the official newspaper of the Southwestern Medical Center available to a wider audience by posting each issue on the main external Web site, ultimately increasing monthly page views to approximately 2,500.

U.S. Postal Service, Corporate Communications: Engaging Employees—The USPS’ corporate communications team created an internal publication to foster an engaged workforce that is committed to external stakeholders.