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This is Western Coffee—notes on building the creative body. Last time: Can’t. The whole series is here. Please share this email; you can sign up free below.
Hi. A bit of a personal note today.
It’s starting to feel like March 30, when I crashed my bike, was the end of one chapter in my life and the start of another. One result of turning that page is that I find myself wanting to be fully part of a working community again, which is a plot twist. Writing is an isolating endeavor, no surprise, but it wasn’t feeling like a liability. Over the last six weeks, that’s been shifting.
My career as a newsroom leader was first about day-to-day decisions on presenting the news, using words and images to explicate and draw people into stories about the world. Then it grew to encompass more of the how and why: How do people find those stories, how do we deepen their engagement and retain them, why should they trust us? Those questions then turned out to be as much about us as about them. Who are we as an organization and as a team? What do we value? What kinds of stories do we tell, and why?
I’ve always been fascinated by brand work, and to me that’s what brand is: It’s the set of values and narratives that aligns the producer and the audience by means of the product.
So I’m looking for work along one or more of three tracks, arising from my strengths and experience: (1) Full-time, ambitious, expansive writing on topics where I have competency and interest: athletics, creativity, technology, music. (2) Occupying the intersection of disciplines as a translator and diplomat, much as I did between product and newsroom teams at The New York Times and The Atlantic. (3) Cohering and articulating organizational identity as a holistic exercise, not just a marketing function.
If you know of a good place to work with a relevant need (and a taste for heterodoxy), please reply and let me know. Here’s my profile on the odious LinkedIn. I’ll be staying in New York, by the way. I appreciate it.
- Michael
Kindly send me your thoughts, questions, and provocations: dmichaelowen@gmail.com. And say hi on Instagram, or let’s Peloton together: @leggy_blond.