Newsquest Media Group Ltd. is the second largest publisher of regional and local newspapers in the United Kingdom. With 205 brands across the UK, publishing online and in print (165 newspaper brands and 40 magazine brands), it reaches 28 million visitors a month online and 6.5 million readers a week in print. Based in London, Newsquest employs a total of more than 5,500 people across the UK, which includes over 1,000 experienced media sales people that help local businesses promote their products and services to local audiences.

Having recently purchased a LMS to support their sales staff, they wanted to provide the team access to a wide range of online material to support their introduction to the group and their continuous development. They wanted to transition from traditional classroom based training to a more flexible, blended approach using online content and greater application back in the workplace, and they wanted their learners to enjoy training. Newsquest needed to find content that would change these perceptions of training and encourage people to want to use it to develop themselves. A change in culture was needed to introduce a more blended approach to learning and to help learners embrace the training.

Newsquest chose SAP Litmos Courses and the results have been amazing and far exceeded the expectations of the Newsquest L&D team. After an initial surge in usage, the continued marketing of content has meant they have continued to see usage increase. The team have been able to break down some of their larger classroom-based courses (such as an eight-day induction training programme) and evolve into a completely blended experience.

Learners also love it, providing ample positive feedback to the L&D team around ease of use, accessibility, the bite-sized nature of the courses and more. One of the clear indicators of successes to emerge from the marketing campaign is the continued engagement figures, which have consistently risen since Newquest began their campaign in July 2016.

Speaking of the impact, Mel continued:

“SAP Litmos Courses provides engaging content – but from a L&D Managers perspective it makes life so much easier. They are always top of the list when I am asked for recommendations.”