Discussion background: This discussion involves a case study. The case study is fictional, but it is based on several real-life incidents.

Case study background: NewMedia 415 is a (fictional) high-technology publishing company based in San Francisco. It was founded in 1990.

NewMedia 415 publishes print magazines and websites that report about new business-software products being developed by high-tech firms in California. NewMedia 415's audience-that is, the people who read its magazines and website content-consist of company owners who want to learn more about these software products before buying them for their companies. The company grew from 1 person in 1990 to 120 by 2005.

In 2005, like many of its competitors, NewMedia 415 began offering live conferences on technology topics. Up to this time, all the company's employees had worked in the company's San Francisco headquarters. But because the conferences were being held in other locations, NewMedia 415 rapidly opened remote offices in other cities, including New York, New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Seattle, Washington; Orlando, Florida; and Chicago, Illinois.

By 2005, NewMedia 415 employed 185 people, including about 65 conference-related employees in San Francisco and the five new remote offices.

NewMedia 415 has a "transparent" culture, with management typically keeping employees well-informed about all major company decisions. However, due to travel costs, employees in the remote offices rarely go to San Francisco to meet their colleagues in person. Most all-company communication happens via the channels listed above.

The company's main "channels" for internal communication include:

Email messages sent to all employees.

A monthly newsletter posted on the company's internal website.

A weekly all-company meeting held for a half-hour every Wednesday afternoons. Staffers in San Francisco attend the meeting in person; staffers in the remote offices "attend" by telephone.

The challenge: Following the recent recession, the entire conference industry suffered serious setbacks. To save money, many companies stopped sending their employees to such events. As a result, many conferences were cancelled due to low attendance.

In one year alone, NewMedia 415 cancelled conferences in Boston, Seattle, and Chicago. The company lost tens of thousands of dollars on each cancellation due to nonrefundable conference-center fees, lost advertising costs, and other expenses.

NewMedia 415's biggest competitor, TechXL, was experiencing similar problems: In that same year, TechXL abruptly cancelled all its scheduled conference and closed its conference division, laying off dozens of employees.

Not surprisingly, those developments greatly worried Media 415's employees, especially those in the remote offices. Rumors about NewMedia 415's future popped up inside and outside the company. According to one rumor, NewMedia 415 was about to lay off 100 people. According to another, NewMedia 415 was planning to file for bankruptcy.

NewMedia 415's leaders weren't planning anything that drastic. However, following the cancellation of the Boston, Chicago, and Seattle conferences, they were discussing whether to close those offices, which would eliminate 15 jobs. But they were still considering other alternatives and hadn't made the final decision. Still, their employees were frightened and demanding answers.

Now it's time for NewMedia 415's leaders to talk to their employees.What should they say?

From an internal communication perspective, what should NewMedia 415's leaders do? Given that they haven't yet decided what will actually happen, how transparent should they be? What should they tell their employees? How can they knock down the rumors while still being truthful about potential layoffs? Should they do anything special or different to communicate differently with the remote employees (those outside the San Francisco office)-and, if so, what?

And: Have you ever been involved in, or observed, a situation like this? If so, what advice or insights can you share?

Reminders:

Remember to focus on the internal communication question, rather than getting into a debate about whether NewMedia 415 should have started a conference business. The issue is: What should the company's leaders tell their internal audiences, and how should they do it?
As always, don't just list answers to the questions. Instead, use them as a jumping-off point for writing about aspects of this case that especially interest you.