Merck KGaA employee newspaper wins award

Merck KGaA has announced that pro, its employee newspaper, has picked up a major international award.

It has been recognised with the platinum Inspire award from the League of American Communications Professionals, the top prize in the category for firms with sales of over one billion euros (785 million pounds) and over 10,000 employees.

The jury of the league said that the magazine is an excellent publication that is successful in communicating the operational diversity, personality and values of the company.

It added that the articles featured in pro are engaging and wide-ranging, with excellent production values.

There were a total of 550 entrants to the competition.

Dr Walter Huber, head of corporate communications at Merck KGaA, said: “From the home of the Oscars, we are proud to say that our ‘pro’ has won a Communications Oscar.”

He added that the accolade shows that the company is progressing towards its aim of becoming more informative and pointing itself towards the right target groups in a modern and globalised world economy.

In February 2008, Merck KGaA announced a 58 per cent rise in total revenues for the 2007 fiscal year, up to 7.1 billion euros, while profit after tax rose 251.6 per cent to 3.5 billion euros.