Gridline

Building a cohesive community from a geographically spread audience, with a diverse demographic, can be a challenge. This is particularly true in National Grid's case, where its audience has no perceived incentive to form a community.

National Grid uses Gridline magazine as one of the ways it communicates with its grantors (landowners who have assets such as electricity pylons and gas pipes on their land). National Grid needs to access the land these assets run through to install new assets and carry out essential maintenance operations.

Grantors are a diverse audience of rural landowners, urban landowners and large organisations, such as British Waterways and the National Trust. In some cases, the assets and the relationship with National Grid have been inherited and may, therefore, be undesired.

To combat this feeling, the magazine plays a pivotal role in helping National Grid to talk directly to the grantors, explaining their important role in maintaining the efficient supply of energy to the UK and the part they can play in helping National Grid with its sustainability commitments. All stories are told from the grantor perspective, allowing other grantors to understand and share their experiences. Content focuses on common themes of land ownership and the message that comes through the magazine clearly is that, no matter what background grantors come from, each is linked by an energy network that covers the length and breadth of the country. Gridline reflects and celebrates that link.