New print magazine reaches staffers only at home

Print is dead, we keep hearing, and the only way to reach employees is digitally, most of all through mobile.

Yet for one group of hospitals, the best way forward is a return to the past, with a magazine that employees receive by mail at home.

Dignity Health’s Southern California Service Area, a six-hospital unit of a multistate company, has launched a print-only publication to foster unity among a scattered staff.

Never mind the naysayers. The new plan is working—and the magazine is growing, says Daniel Lacovara, director of internal communications for Dignity Health’s Southern California Service Area. The publication is called “Service Area Connect.”

In another throwback, the magazine is mailed to employees’ homes, not piled in breakrooms and at nursing stations. With the exception of a small Spanish version, employees can’t get it at work.

“It may feel for some people like going backwards, but the feedback we’ve gotten from employees and from the hospital president, is really, really positive,” he says.

The service area covers 10,000 employees in the system’s six hospitals across the Southland from Glendale to San Bernardino. The larger corporation, headquartered in San Francisco, boasts 60,000 caregivers and staff.