Role(s): Project Manager, Comms Lead, Journalistic Writer
Deliverables: Copywriting + comms materials development: interview-style content
Project Description
In October of 2022, Roseburg’s executive team implemented a new leadership structure for managing the operations/manufacturing side of the company. Each plant was grouped by product segment, with each group now overseen by newly-established “segment leaders” who would report directly to the SVP of Manufacturing. The segments were separated as (1) Plywood, (2) Lumber, (3) Engineered Wood Products (EWP), + (4) Composites.
The standard approach for announcing a leadership change would be to write + push a press release that broadly stated why the change was deemed necessary, shared alongside an updated organizational chart mapping out the new names, titles, + responsibilities. This was done (as usual), but since this update was so complex + involved several different promotions, the announcement was dense.
Leadership feared that the information was not approachable. Having team members feel less mystery around corporate messaging was a significant priority to the team.
To address that concern, + given the significance of this structural change, the executive team decided to treat the case as a special storytelling opportunity. They agreed to roll out a series of follow-up stories that tied back to the original announcement, in order to gain new perspectives on how the change was driving success for our operations over time. This approach would open the door to dive deeper into the details with the added benefit of humanizing the new leaders + giving them each their own time in the spotlight.
Work Involved
I served as the primary writer + editor for all four follow-up stories. I started off by creating an outline that all the articles would follow to establish a sense of cohesion, with an approach that would include multiple perspectives + feel well-rounded. Once the outline was approved, I set out on a journalistic endeavor to piece together each story, landing on a monthly publishing cadence.
Approach + Objectives
For all four features, I collected various data pieces and compiled each story. Each was published to the company intranet + emailed out to employee database.
- From each segment leader:
- Survey question responses, background + other personal anecdotes, history with the company, interesting facts, + family photos
- From the executive team:
- Their perspective of the segment leader’s qualifications, + other comments about the restructure (featuring a different executive for each story)
- From plant leaders or other colleagues:
- Comments on their unique experiences working closely with the leaders (folks chosen specifically for each individual)