How The Disk became NCAA’s weekly must-read communication that brings colleagues closer together.
👉 The challenge: For years, NCAA staff received a daily internal newsletter called The Daily — often delivered in a corporate tone with repetitive announcements. As the organization evolved, the team saw an opportunity to streamline updates in a fun, casual style and elevate the impact of their all-staff comms.
As NCAA’s internal communications team looked to modernize, they focused on three key areas:
- A clearer cadence for staff: NCAA wanted a more sustainable rhythm for internal updates that made information easier to follow week to week.
- A more engaging staff experience: The team aimed to create a newsletter that felt engaging, accessible, and faster to absorb, while still covering everything employees needed to know — shifting from a corporate voice to a more conversational tone.
- A stronger sense of connection across the office: With 550 employees and contractors across 15 departments and more than 30 units, NCAA saw an opportunity to make all-staff communications more inclusive.
🏆 The solution: In February 2024, NCAA launched The Disk — a weekly all-staff newsletter powered by Axios HQ and Smart Brevity. The Disk, named to remind staff all news points back to its blue disk logo, was designed to be the go-to destination for NCAA staff, combining timely announcements with storytelling that celebrates the people behind the work.
- A weekly one-stop-shop: NCAA streamlined communications by moving from a daily newsletter to a single weekly send — bringing key updates into one clear, organized place and cutting down on noise for staff.
- Smart Brevity for maximum engagement: The team writes updates in Smart Brevity and leverages Axios HQ features like photos, images, emojis, bullet points, and bolding to make content easier to scan and more enjoyable to read.
- Culture building comms: NCAA shifted to more of a business casual tone and beyond announcements now, The Disk features staff spotlights that celebrate colleagues and reinforce company wide culture.
🛠️ How it works: NCAA's content creation process is built to make internal comms feel collaborative, service-oriented, and consistent week over week.
- Requests flow through Asana: Departments submit “Disk requests” through an Asana form, allowing teams across the organization to contribute announcements and updates.
- The comms team rewrites and produces in Axios HQ: The team organizes submissions, rewrites content into Smart Brevity, formats directly in Axios HQ, and sends drafts through copyediting before publishing.
- Stakeholder trust is built through partnership: The team takes a customer service approach, meeting stakeholders in person and collaborating closely so departments see internal comms as a trusted partner.
📊 Key business results: The Disk has helped NCAA elevate internal communications into a weekly newsletter that is easier to follow, more engaging, and more focused on celebrating the people behind the mission.
- Higher engagement: Open rates increased 35%, with some editions reaching 70%+ open rates.
- Consistent results: NCAA reports consistent month-over-month and year-over-year gains in open and click performance.
- Stronger team connection: NCAA highlighted 250+ staff members between 2024–2025 through features, photos, new hires, and recognition — helping strengthen connections across teams.
- Meaningful storytelling: During a period of reorganization, the team produced contractor spotlight videos, generating exceptional engagement, including 63% click rates on two videos and strong employee feedback.
💭 Closing thoughts from Olivia Brown, Assistant Director of Internal and Member Communications, on Axios HQ and The Disk’s impact on their workforce:
- “At the NCAA, we use Axios HQ and Smart Brevity as vital tools for creating connection and engagement across our national office. The Axios HQ platform allows us to communicate staff news clearly and concisely, leaving room for celebratory announcements, photos and staff features. We have so much fun leveraging Axios HQ to create The Disk and in turn, our staff enjoys reading it!
- In fact, based on our success with The Disk, our communications and other national office departments now use Axios HQ to produce all of our key emails to membership.”