A multinational media corporation’s future is on the line, and all stakeholder’s await the CEO’s decision: will he (or won’t he) accept an $80 billion takeover bid? At large firms today, communication happens through email, and that’s how a lot of news is delivered (hopefully employees never have to learn of company news via Twitter or the New York Times). While email can be both immensely useful and sometimes exasperating, it’s still considered a very impersonal medium, especially for delivering big and consequential news.

So last week when Time Warner’s CEO Jeffrey L. Bewkes wanted to announce to his employees that the board had rejected 21^st Century Fox’s bid, he did so by speaking to the camera in a two and a half minute video. He opens, “Hi everyone. I wanted to speak directly to you about the news you’ve been hearing today about our company.” In the short video, also posted to Time Warner’s website, Mr. Bewkes faces his audience (of thousands) with clear sincerity. This more human way of reassuring and connecting with his employees and was met with aplomb (even the New York Times took note of his authentic delivery).

That same week, Microsoft also had a message to deliver to employees: the corporation is planning an estimated 12,500 lay offs (that’s more than ten percent of the company’s workforce) in the next year. While this is already shocking news, the delivery was even worse: a fourteen-paragraph company memo, most of which is digressive and long-winded, before finally mentioning the lay-offs in paragraph number eleven. Of course, news of any lay-offs is already difficult to communicate, but a faceless, rambling memo in everyone’s inbox certainly doesn’t soften the blow.

The human element is often hard to find at large corporations – but if you have a big announcement to make to your stakeholders, you should especially take care to be as genuine as possible. It’s certainly much easier for someone to deliver bad news from behind their keyboard, and intended audiences understand that. It’s also easy for the email’s tone and intentions to be misconstrued – but a recognizable face speaking sincerely, whether they are delivering good news or bad, is much more palatable and human. It’s nearly impossible for the CEO of a large corporation to deliver an important announcement in person to each stakeholder, but the next best thing might be a personal address via video.