Communications Planning: What is really the goal?

I'm creating a plan for internal communications, and everything I've learned over the years of my career states that "to inform" and "to create awareness" are NOT acceptable goals for a communication plan.

That said, where in the heck does our employee newsletter fit into the grand scheme of things? What exactly are we accomplishing by distributing a newsletter each week or each day? How do we justify the amount of time that goes into soliciting contributions, editing those contributions, producing the newsletter and then doing it all again tomorrow?

What do you think? What are some of your internal communications goals? What should the goal be of internal communication? What do you want and expect from communications/PR staff at your company?