The Wall Street Journal has observed a hiring trend in the United States: many companies are searching for 'storytellers,' one of the oldest professions in the world.
Some companies are seeking public relations managers; many want people who can write blogs, produce podcasts, create case studies, and develop various content formats to attract customers, investors, and potential applicants. All of these seem to define storytelling differently from the usual meaning associated with novelists, playwrights, and traditional storytellers.
Major corporations like Google have announced openings for customer storytelling managers to join the Google Cloud content team. Microsoft’s security division is also seeking senior executives to oversee storytelling, describing the role as a combination of cybersecurity technologist, communicator, and marketer. The project management app Notion recently merged its communications, social media, and influencer teams—about ten people—into one unit called the Storytelling Team.
This trend has occurred alongside another: the decline of the U.S. media industry over the past 25 years.
Previously, companies relied on mass media and journalists to help spread their brand stories through earned media (stories about brands covered by media without paid promotion). However, this approach has lost popularity for several years. Latest estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show only 49,000 people working as news analysts, reporters, and journalists, down from 65,930 in 2000.
Newspaper circulation in the U.S. has dropped by as much as 70% since 2005. Similarly, visits to websites of over a hundred major newspapers have declined by more than 40% in the past four years, according to the State of Local News report published by Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.
Brands now have to find ways to tell their own stories through managing social media accounts, YouTube channels, and newsletters. Some even provide direct funding to entertainment businesses.
“This has caused a shift in corporate communications roles.” , Steve Hirsch,
CEO and co-founder of Hirsch Leatherwood, a communications firm in New York, said, “It has become normal that when I talk with CEOs, they often tell me it seems we need a content strategy rather than a strategy to build relationships with journalists. In an era where AI makes work seem less trustworthy, they see that the brands that will win are those that are genuine, human, and accessible.”
This trend has come alongside criticism and debate. At the same time WSJ reported this, discussions emerged about the difference between the storytellers brands want and true storytellers. Some said the art of storytelling 'died' as soon as brands adopted it as a marketing strategy. Others disagreed, saying storytelling is an enduring art tied to humanity, but now people can easily distinguish sincere stories from those used merely to drive corporate profits.
“Real storytellers, like novelists or filmmakers, don’t see themselves as storytellers,” designer Stefan Sagmeister said in a 2014 interview. “Only people who aren’t storytellers suddenly want to be storytellers.” Eleven years later, this conversation remains debated.
Reference:wsj.com