Hey All,

All six episodes of Phoenixed are now live for you to binge. Phoenixed is a true crime podcast series we made with the Global Payroll Association telling the incredible story of Canada’s biggest payroll scandal. If you were gripped by the UK post office scandal, you will love this.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for Proper Fancy on Thursday. As ever, it was an inspirational blast! Join us next month for another - sign up on Eventbrite here.

OK. That’s it from us this week. Have a wonderful weekend. Enjoy the links.

Hugh, Anjali and Matt

Get The Message: Distribution and Attribution (7-min read)

300 Year Old Company Still Makes Pastels by Hand (14-min watch)

Hundreds of Beautiful Film Screen-Grabs to Give You Creative Inspiration (5 min browse)

The Last Ever XOXO Conference (3 day event)

50 Things I Know (13-min read)

Desert Dumps: How Europe is Literally Moving People To Deserts (7-min read)

The Secret Writing Tips I Learnt From Kendrick Lamar (17-min read)

How Do We Survive the Media Apocalypse (1-hr listen)

A Brilliant Video Format From Vanity Fair (12-min watch)

Be Funny or Die (book recommendation)

How we can help you

Storythings is the content marketing agency of choice for some of the world’s most forward-thinking B2B brands and organisations. Here are 2 reasons to get in touch. 

1. “I don’t know what to do” – You’ve been creating content but it’s not having the impact you need. Talk to us about our Content Audit Workshop.

2. “I need something making” – You know what you want to make but need an agency to make it. We can help make your podcast, video, publication, animation and newsletter.We do other things too. Get in touch for a FREE 30 minute consultation. 

Get The Message: Distribution and Attribution (7-min read)

The third piece in our series Get The Message we look at how social platforms are becoming walled gardens, and as they do can we trust the claims they make about results for both distribution and attribution? Content discovery is broken, and social platforms are essentially paid media now. They are no longer ‘earned’ attention, you have to buy ads or boost posts to stand a chance of getting in front of your followers. But big platforms are marking their own homework, and claiming credit for sales attributions where they really didn’t add any value.

300 Year Old Company Still Makes Pastels by Hand (14-min watch)

Still Standing is a great video format from Business Insider, telling the stories of companies that have lasted for centuries. This edition is gorgeous, showing how Henri Roché pastels are still made by hand by just two people, in the same way as when artists like Degas used to buy them. The shots of the pastel colours been mixed are just perfect ASMR.

Hundreds of Beautiful Film Screen-Grabs to Give You Creative Inspiration (5 min browse)

We love website like this, that take a simple approach to curating loads of great visual inspiration. There’s no analysis, not theory, just loads of lovely things to look at, each one a potential rabbit hole for you to dive down. I recommend browsing them by aspect ratio!

The Last Ever XOXO Conference (3 day event)

When we used to run The Story Conference, we felt a very strong kinship with the brilliant XOXO event in Portland, Oregon. It’s was always beautifully curated, showcasing a really diverse and inspiring range of indie creativity across platforms. It’s coming back for one final event in late August - get your name on the list if you want to go ASAP!

50 Things I know (13-min read) (new)

Fantastic list of 50 things Sasha Chapin knows, which is worth everyone knowing. One of the comments on the post is “this post is worth a million bucks goddamn”, which I hope tickles your curiosity enough to click through. You won’t be disappointed.

Desert Dumps: How Europe is Literally Moving People To Deserts (7-min read)

A rather sobering investigative project by Lighthouse Reports - collaborative journalism by 8 publishers including The Washington Post, Le Monde, El Pais and Der Spiegel - which reveals how Europe is complicit in clandestine operations in North African countries to dump people in the desert or remote locations to prevent them coming to the EU. For each country covered there are also 60-90 second videos that pull in data visualisation, original footage, photography and newspaper clips that summarise the situation.

The Secret Writing Tips I Learnt From Kendrick Lamar (17-min read)

An enjoyable read that takes you through what Leila Renee learnt from Kendrick Lamar’s music that inspired her own writing: “Then it hit me: Kendrick’s cutting the volume on a verse was not some ill-conceived decision. It was a bold artistic declaration: just because something is done well, doesn’t mean it needs to be overdone. I initially wanted the verse to go on forever. But what if it did? Would I keep rewinding it just to get to the sweet spot? Or would I simply grow tired and switch the song?”

How Do We Survive the Media Apocalypse (1-hr listen)

We’re massive fans of PJ Vogt’s Search Engine podcast in which he answers questions that might keep you up at night (no question to big and no question too small). Last week, Google announced a fundamental change to how the site will work, which will likely have dire effects for publishers. We’ve been talking about this for a long time. When a lot of people use Google now, the site will often offer AI-generated summaries to you, instead of favoring human-written articles. This is being rolled out globally. PJ talks to Platformer’s Casey Newton about why this is happening, why publishers are nervous, and about a secret new internet you may not have heard of, a paradise to which we may all yet escape.

A Brilliant Video Format From Vanity Fair (12-min watch)

This is soooo good! And Ayo Edebiri is soooo good! The actor holds court and she listens to both sides of each of the petty beefs before passing judgment. It’s very funny, brilliantly done, and a conversation starter between the kind of people who film videos at gigs or steal fries off a tray in a hotel corridor.

Be Funny or Die (book recommendation)

I’ve read a lot of great books on story structure. And a lot of rubbish ones too. Joel Morris’ Be Funny or Die is now up there as one of my favourites. The co-creator of Philomena Cunk and writer on things like Paddington, Mitchell and Webb, and Ladybird Books For Grown-Ups takes comedy writing apart and puts it back together in a way that makes it sound so simple. It isn’t of course but his explanation will give confidence to anyone who has desire to write that sit they’ve always wanted to write.

We hope you've enjoyed this week’s newsletter. I’m sure some of your friends would love to read it. Sharing it would be really appreciated. If you’ve received this from a friend, you can subscribe below and get it direct to your inbox every Friday.

Thanks for reading. We’ll see you all next week.

Hugh, Matt, Anjali and the whole team at Storythings.