A house organ (also variously known as 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 for its customers or its employees. This name derives from the use of "organ" as referring to a periodical for a special interest group.
House organs 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.
An example of a commercial house organ is the Avalon Hill General. This had no outside advertising (usually a major portion of a magazine's budget). It featured news, strategy articles, variants, and essays on game design—all about Avalon Hill games.
Famous quotes containing the words house and/or organ:
““A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“But alas! I never could keep a promise. I do not blame myself for this weakness, because the fault must lie in my physical organization. It is likely that such a very liberal amount of space was given to the organ which enables me to make promises, that the organ which should enable me to keep them was crowded out. But I grieve not. I like no half-way things. I had rather have one faculty nobly developed than two faculties of mere ordinary capacity.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)