John Cleese is perhaps the most famous figure in British internal communication, though not many people would know it. He is, of course, most famous for iconic comedies such as Fawlty Towers and Monty Python’s Flying Circus. But he has spent a much larger part of his career running (and starring in) the films of one […]
Meetings, Bloody Meetings: Source of the Month (May 2025) Read More »
Academic outputs February was a very successful month for the project in terms of academic outputs. We had submitted two papers to major 4* global academic journals and were given a revise and resubmission (R&R) for both of these. For non-academic colleagues, this means that we have been asked to make revisions to the articles
Research Update (March 2025) Read More »
Miss Rail News was a popular competition run by the Rail News newspaper. Launched in 1963, it served both the employees of British Rail (who received a free copy) and a wider community of rail aficionados (who paid 6d a copy). Rail News was launched at precisely the moment that a self-consciously modern national railway
Miss Rail News and Changing Times in 1960s Britain – Source of the Month (March 2025) Read More »
Across this week, we have explored the major chapters in the history of internal communication. The final chapter, which we are still watching unfold today, has seen digital technology revolutionise the way that we communicate. Although the origins of digital technology are much earlier, the 1990s is the decade in which it began to have
Yesterday, we explored how the Second World War drew attention to the importance of communication. After the war, internal communication underwent a series of significant transformations. One of these was an explosion in company magazines and readership. From an estimated 350 magazines in Britain in 1938 company magazines expanded to 1,000 in 1950, 1,500 in
Yesterday, we explored how magazines spread in the interwar years. With the Second World War, internal communication underwent significant transformations. The war itself led to backward steps in relation to the communication channels that had developed in the interwar years. Most notably, shortages of paper meant that many publications became slimmed down. Interestingly, internal communication
Yesterday’s post looked at the origins of the company magazine in the late nineteenth century. The First World War marked a significant turning point in the history of internal communication within organisations. The war itself was a stimulus for some companies to begin a magazine, a notable example being Boots, which used its Comrades in
As the Institute of Internal Communication marks its 75th anniversary, this blog post takes a step back in time to discover how internal communication has got to where it is today. Taking us from the first known dedicated company magazine in 1878 through to the launch of AI software, this story aims to be the