House organ

For musical organs installed in people's houses, see residence organ.

A house organ (also variously known an in-house magazine, in-house publication, house journal, shop paper, plant paper, or employee magazine) is a magazine or periodical published by a company or organization for its customers, employees, union members, parishioners, political party members, and so forth. This name derives from the use of "organ" as referring to a periodical for a special interest group.

The Silver Sheet, a house organ of Thomas H. Ince Studios in the early 1920s

House organs typically come in two types, internal and external. An internal house organ is meant for consumption by the employees of the company as a channel of communication for the management. An external house organ is meant for consumption by the customers of the company, and may be either a free regular newsletter, or an actual commercial product in its own right.

Examples include inflight magazines and most university alumni magazines.

Further reading

• Employee magazines in the United States. Studies in industrial relations problems. Vol. 110. National Industrial Conference Board. 1925.
• Shel Holtz (2004). "Types of Employee Communications". Corporate conversations: a guide to crafting effective and appropriate internal communications. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. pp. 84–86. ISBN 978-0-8144-0770-7.
• Hayes, Elinor (November 1922). "The Employees' Publication". University Journal of Business. 1 (1). The University of Chicago Press: 81–94. doi:10.1086/506641. JSTOR 2354751.
• Peter Francis O'Shea (1920). Employees' Magazines for Factories, Offices, and Business Organizations. H. W. Wilson Company. LCCN 20026978.
• JoAnne Yates (1993). Control through communication: the rise of system in American management. Studies in Industry and Society. Vol. 6. JHU Press. pp. 17, 74–77. ISBN 978-0-8018-4613-7.
• Elspeth H. Brown (2008). The Corporate Eye: Photography and the Rationalization of American Commercial Culture, 1884–1929. JHU Press. pp. 137–143. ISBN 978-0-8018-8970-7.
• Anthony Slide (1985). "In-House Journals". International film, radio, and television journals. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-23759-1.
• Anthony F. Deyes (1994). "The Place of In-House Journals in Business Interaction: A Case Study". In Leila Barbara; Mike Scott; Antonieta Celani (eds.). Reflections on language learning. Multilingual Matters. ISBN 978-1-85359-257-7.
• Jenny McKay (2006). The magazines handbook (2nd ed.). Taylor & Francis. p. 191. ISBN 978-0-415-37137-7.
• Sandra Cleary (2008). Communication: a hands-on approach. Juta and Company Ltd. pp. 289–290. ISBN 978-0-7021-7714-9.
• Arthur Judson Brewster & Herbert Hall Palmer (2001). Introduction to Advertising. The Minerva Group, Inc. pp. 252–253. ISBN 978-0-89875-506-0.
• George Frederick Wilson (1915). The house organ: how to make it produce results. Washington Park Publishing.
• Robert E. Ramsay (1920). Effective house organs: the principles and practice of editing and publishing successful house organs. D. Appleton and company.
• Communication Through House Journals - a research study, authored by Dr.A.SreekumarMenon published in a book of Readings 'Emerging Challenges in Management' edited by Dr.A.S.Menon and Dr.K.Shyamanna C.B.H. Publications, Trivandrum, KeralaState, India, 1990, pages175-182