Corporate America Wants You

I was delighted to read an article in The Wall Street Journal recently titled Companies Are Desperately Seeking 'Storytellers.

According to the reporter, the percentage of LinkedIn job postings that include the term "storyteller" has doubled in the past year alone, with more than 50,000 marketing positions and 20,000 media and communications jobs now featuring the word.

Google is hiring "customer storytelling managers." Microsoft wants a "senior director overseeing narrative and storytelling." USAA has brought on four staff storytellers in less than a year. Financial technology brand Chime just opened its first "director of corporate editorial and storytelling" position.

As any writer worth their salt is aware, we’ve been inundated since mass adoption of ChatGPT in 2023 with a flood of AI Slop (Word of the Year in 2025). The great news is that companies are running away from AI-generated content because they've seen what happens when brands try to fake authenticity. Spoiler alert: Consumers get annoyed!

It’s thrilling to witness this shift in brands favoring real storytellers over AI babble machines, especially after decades of bad news. Traditional journalism has been shrinking for decades, with only 49,000 people now working as news analysts, reporters, and journalists compared to nearly 66,000 in 2000, and newspaper circulation has dropped by a staggering 70% since 2005. As new channels have exploded—from YouTube to podcasts to Substack newsletters—there is no lack of content to feast upon. On the contrary, the sheer volume of stuff to read, watch, and listen to is overwhelming. 

What people are hungry for is authentic connection.

As a storyteller, you possess a superpower that machines (at least for the time being) do not: The ability to mine your own experiences for universal truths, craft compelling narratives that move people emotionally, and share your wisdom through deeply personal stories. The result is that your writing feels genuine rather than manufactured. 

These are skills that companies are now paying top dollar to acquire.

Aloha,

MeiMei

TIP OF THE WEEK:

Delve into Your Authenticity

Companies are hiring storytellers because data and facts alone don't move people, stories do. And the stories that move people are ones that tap into emotion. 

Sit down and write a Movie Moment: A story about your first love, latest heartbreak, childhood triumph, or recent awakening. 

See if you can make yourself laugh or cry.