You have made a good beginning by studying a few house magazines of well-reputed corporates to get an idea of the layout and contents of these in-house magazines. You need not restrict it to just manufacturing companies but explore magazines of other organizations like public sector banks too. "Fireside," the house magazine of Thermax, is one of the award-winning house magazines, and "Kshema" of Corporation Bank is also worth going through.
Planning Your Internal Magazine
When you are planning your internal magazine, it is important that you be clear why you need to have a magazine, what you wish to attain by circulating it, what is the frequency, and how you will manage to generate content. Most house magazines contain an editorial, a message from the chairman, some brief information about the new business and new initiatives, a mix of human interest articles, motivational content, rewards, recognition, and obituaries. There could be other columns like a learner's corner, employees' contributions such as poems, articles, humor, etc. Special awards or outstanding achievements of employees or departments or the company must be suitably highlighted too.
Editorial Board and Content Management
It would be useful to have a good editorial board in place so that the contents are screened, and no bias or favoritism is shown in the selection of content or rejection of content. More importantly, they should ensure that there is quality content and good production of the house magazine with a special emphasis on timely circulation to all. The cost factor is also a key component that will impact the quality of the magazine. Having representatives from functional departments and branches will ensure a sufficient inflow of content. You can also consider an e-magazine to save costs and ease the logistics of distribution.
Copyright and Plagiarism Vigilance
You must be vigilant and ensure that copyrighted material is not published without permission. Also, make sure that content is not plagiarized and passed off as original material, and ensure that the publication of email forwards and SMS messages is avoided as far as possible.
You are invited to visit the following Inspirational and Motivational blogs to get an idea of the variety of content that can be incorporated into the new magazine planned by you:
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www.actspot.wordpress.com - Over 63,500 views and 450 followers
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www.poweract.blogspot.com - Over 18,000 views and 140 followers
Best Wishes