For a Cause

During the Second World War, one man recalls,  ❝ Our bulletins in German were the most objective sober bulletins of all that were put out by the BBC. We could not afford to be caught in any inaccuracy. ¶  ❝ The German listeners would not swallow anything, because they were on the lookout to prove us liars. We had to be 101 percent accurate. We had to claim less than we actually did. There is nothing more effective than saying that there has been a moderately severe raid on Essen, when 2,000 people have actually been killed. That sort of thing gives the enemy cold shivers.

You may have seen this making the rounds:  ¶  A typical website visit in 2022 1. Figure out how to decline all but essential cookies 2. Close the support widget asking if I need help 3. Stop the auto-playing video 4. Close the “subscribe to our newsletter” pop-up 5. Try and remember why I came here in the first place — Andy Budd (@andybudd) January 2, 2022 Update: Here's the 2026 equivalent on Bluesky . The parallels between good design, good writing, and good user experience are revealing. Writing and design might as well be aspects of the same thing. Which they are. 

"Write what you know" is, proverbially, advice to writers of fiction seeking authenticity. Don't write a police procedural without first learning something about police procedure.  ¶  It's good advice, and might apply to other communications projects too. But journalists and story tellers do not need to be subject-matter experts about anything other their craft. That is what makes this job fun.

Education and outreach, meet content marketing  ¶  Today, let's borrow something from the for-profit marketing world. Something the marketers borrowed from us.  ¶  If you give stuff away, you will make friends, build credibility, and create relationships.