From newsroom to copy desk: why journalists make the best B2B copywriters
In my career, I've worn many hats—in-house copywriter, agency copywriter, content marketer, journalist.
After my degree in journalism, I hopped around between local magazines, glossy consumer titles, trade press and ‘customer publishing’ for brands (back when in-flight magazines were still a thing), eager to soak up every bit of writing experience I could.
While many journalists decide to make the transition to the marketing industry, it wasn’t exactly a massive plot twist for me. Because I was already straddling both worlds—writing to sell things and writing purely to inform.
Later I’d go on to chase exclusives in the newsroom as a tech journo, and write hard-selling copy from online ads to promotional video scripts at a B2B marketing agency.
What I realised early on is that good storytelling is universal—whether I was writing about local news, B2B SaaS, the building trade or luxury spas.
Yes, there are distinct skills that can only come with copywriting experience, such as:
Understanding the psychology behind persuasion.
Seeing the bigger picture of a brand strategy or customer journey.
Working well with clients and learning from constructive feedback.
The art of polishing a message down into just a couple of pithy words, to activate an emotion and influence action (in the case of short-form copy like digital ads).
But my journalism experience has taught me how to:
Dive into diverse subject matter in short order.
Find the humanity behind the numbers and that one unique angle in the facts, without sacrificing accuracy.
Translate large amounts of complex information into a well-structured narrative where every word serves a purpose.
And do all of this quickly—because deadlines are non-negotiable.
Whether it’s a video script for a luxury travel startup, persuasive web copy for a nonprofit, or a detailed whitepaper for a SaaS company, I approach each project with the same mindset:
What’s the story? Why does it matter to this audience? And how can we most effectively tell it?
Journalists are trained to pull out the heart of a story, and in B2B copy, that’s the difference between getting a passing glance and building lasting trust.
