Replacing your established, quarterly print publication and ‘going digital’ to 17,000 employees with a bi-monthly, responsive magazine can be a brave step, but one Nationwide has embraced with impressive results.
They switched their internal magazine, Live!, from a 24-page format in July to ensure Nationwide’s internal communications matched the business’s ambitions to become a truly digital society.
The move towards digital really kicked off in January when the Nationwide team met up with the team at Sequel Group to discuss the change, scope requirements, and identify solutions.
Corporate News Hub Editor Paul Garratt says: “One of our biggest priorities was to ensure that the digital magazine would be seen as an improvement on what readers had before.
“We were keen to take advantage of the possibilities digital gives to make content richer while also ensuring Live! was accessible to people whatever their role.”
“Ideally, we wanted the magazine to be more regular,” adds Account Manager Tracy Jones, “but to retain the design look, flexibility and feel of a print publication rather than looking like a structured website.”
On top of these challenges, the site also needed to be compatible with Nationwide’s recently upgraded IT network, meet their security criteria and deliver considerable cost efficiencies compared to the print version… so no small ask.
Sequel’s solution, developed in close consultation with the Nationwide team, was a fully responsive website based on Sequel’s own MAG:ic framework.
The result is a flexible, magazine-like site that is responsive to the device the reader is using, so it works just as well on a phone or tablet as it does on a PC or laptop.
The site is perfect for video, audio and animations and also allows readers to interact via comments, ratings, thumbs ups and email.
It is also accessible on devices both inside and outside the Nationwide network, meaning readers can view it at home or on the move, on their own devices or on their work computer.
Switching to the new format involved a big team effort. Having agreed a visual look for the site, the process of pulling together content for the first issue began.
Sequel Editor Jason Dowty explains: “Moving to digital meant a different approach to content. We wanted the site to embrace multi-media content, but not just for the sake of doing it and only if it allowed us to add a dimension to content that we’d never be able to achieve in print.
“The use of videos and animation, and the ability to add links to further content on the intranet, allowed us to shorten the length of articles to a size more suited to online.
“It also turned Live! from being just part of the Nationwide communications mix to being a portal that would link readers to other digital channels.
“Our design and development teams also worked really hard to ensure their design had the flexibility of a magazine-style design without as many of the frames and templates you’d generally expect from a website.”
As the content took shape, the Sequel team worked on building the site, liaising with the security and IT teams within Nationwide to ensure the site met their needs and that it would work seamlessly for all users.
The site was delivered to coincide with the Nationwide Annual Awards in July and, within days, was gaining rave reviews, with all stories ranking 4 out of 5 or higher by readers.
Tracy Jones explains: “The response we’ve had from readers has been really positive and we’ve had lots of interest from colleagues who say they’d like to do something similar with their own communications.
“While it’s clearly still early days, we’ve got the foundations of a digital magazine that we believe can go from strength to strength.”
Paul adds: “Another benefit of digital is that we get detailed analysis of the number of people visiting the site, the pages they visit, the time spent on each page and a geographical breakdown of where the site is being viewed. This will be invaluable in helping us tailor our promotional campaigns, improve navigation and decide which stories readers want to see more of.”
Nationwide facts