long-form content

Why Marketers Are Embracing Long-Form Storytelling

I’ve been talking about the benefits of long-form storytelling for a while. And lately, I’ve noticed a bunch of new examples crop up. “Gradually, and then suddenly,” as Hemingway once wrote. That’s long-form storytelling and longer content pieces. Right now. We marketers are always experimenting with new content formats and new vehicles. And lately, the trend is moving toward longer pieces and more fleshed-out, substantive ideas. I’m resisting using the word “quality” here—it’s so subjective, and ultimately so meaningless without context—but you know me well enough to know that I’m thinking it. Why is the trend toward long-form storytelling happening now? There are two key reasons. But first, here are a few examples I’ve seen just these past few weeks. Many of these projects have been developed in partnership with established publishers, too. (But that’s a story for another day.) Paper magazine and cannabis company MedMen are launching Ember, a […]

Why Marketers Are Embracing Long-Form Storytelling Read More »

Why Snapchat Is Launching a Magazine

A messaging app investing in writing is a little baffling and weird, isn’t it? Today Snapchat launches online magazine Real Life, in which a staff of five writers publish long-form essays and narratives about life with technology. It’s headed by social scientist and researcher Nathan Jurgenson, who says Real Life “won’t be a news site with gadget reviews or industry gossip. It will be about how we live today and how our lives are mediated by devices.” A messaging app investing in writing is a little baffling, isn’t it? So why is an instant messaging app dominated by impermanent selfies and video suddenly investing in writing? When 100 million daily active users can turn images of themselves into a taco or a pooch or a baby, isn’t the very idea of reading kind of… well, basic, as my teens say? Said another way: in a disappearing-photo, 10-second-video Snapchat world… isn’t writing

Why Snapchat Is Launching a Magazine Read More »