Here I am, two decades deep into my content journey, still talking about the value of writing.

Our stories and human experiences are irreplaceable. They build our audiences and differentiate us from others.

Sure, AI has been making a lot of noise in our industry lately. While I do think that there is a place for AI in content creation, I still believe that we need real human experts, storytellers, and experience sharers for any content creation efforts.

Hiring great writers used to feel like a breeze.

In the early days of building my content marketing agency, finding people who could write well was easy. Back then, I kept the same writers busy on different projects. At one time, we were creating content for an LA lawyer, an IT firm, and a UX designer from southern California, all at the same time, with the same writers!

And because we had a decent baseline SEO + content marketing strategy, it was working.

Fast forward to today’s digital landscape. If I worked with these three clients, I would build three different content teams.

Today, publishers and content marketers are looking for more than a great copywriting master to weave words — we’re looking for writers who can bring the real deal experiences to the table and offer our audiences something AI cannot replicate.

Times have changed.

Okay. So, what’s driving this evolution in content creation?

Let’s dig into this a bit more.

Challenges I See Writers Facing Today

Writers are getting replaced by AI.

While I don’t see this happening on a global scale that it may happen, yes, some writers are getting replaced by AI. My advice to writers I speak to these days — you can’t be a generalist anymore. Choose a lane. Find a specialty. Or offer more than just written blog content if you want to find more opportunities.

They are getting replaced by writers who can do more (video + SEO + editorial, all the things).

Word on the street and, in my experience, tells me that clients and companies who do hire real human writers want more from their writers than just ‘words’. For us at Venture 4th Media, our most valuable writers are those who can showcase and do more EEAT — provide authentic images, screenshots, and product testing videos. For us, these types of content creators are invaluable because we can do more with fewer people.

Writers are getting replaced by more specialized writers or subject matter experts.

I’ve said this many times before, and I’ve seen this shift for several years now. Generalist writers, even quality generalist writers, are not as valuable as they once were.

Today’s publishers are looking for more. We’re looking for authentic experiences from our writing teams. I talked about this over three years ago in a guest post for Market Muse on building digital authority and it is even more true now.

Why Hiring Great Writers Can Be So Tough

Budgets

Creating quality content can be expensive.

If you want to create best-in-class content, that is going to cost you.

Writers who bring a specialization or deep subject matter expertise are much harder to find, and they often come at a higher cost. This can often be niche-dependent as well.

If you want to hire the perfect writer, think about budget first. Do a comparative analysis of what others are paying. If you expect a writer to do more than write, expect to pay a premium. Great writers can often save you money on editorial because their outputs are better as well.

Not Knowing Exactly What Type of Writer You Need

Last year, we started a biz to help others build great content teams. One of the biggest challenges I’ve seen working with clients is determining exactly what type of writer they need.

Real-deal copywriters are different than subject-matter expert writers.

Writers who ‘get’ marketing and think about conversions are different than typical blog writers.

While there are some unicorn writers who can do more, not knowing exactly what type of writer you need is going to make the search that much tougher.

This year, we were tasked with finding a B2B copywriter for a specific niche. At first, against my initial gut, I put out an ad for a B2B copywriter without adding any specialization to the job ad title.

That was a mistake. I got a ton of applications, but not exactly what we were looking for. So, I made a shift, narrowed the title, reworked the job description, and finally attracted the type of writers we needed.

Even after all these years, I sometimes need this reminder — get super clear on the type of writer you need. What will they be creating? What expertise do they need to bring to the role? What support are you going to be able to provide? The more clarity you have before you hire, the easier to find that gem.

Onboarding Practices

I’ve seen some amazing writers get ghosted in the early days of starting with a company, only to move onto a new opportunity before an editor could assign them work.

Talented people have more than one opportunity in the works.

There are so many ways to onboard a writer, but if you really want to keep great talent, you have to give them work from the start. Before hiring a writer, ensure you have something for them to do immediately.

The rules of the game change mid-play.

Okay. I’m not much of a sports fan, but this seems apt. One of the challenges I see in hiring and retaining writers is that the goalpost for quality content keeps changing.

If you suddenly require writers to do more, expect some writers to drop off. You’ve changed the rules, and not every writer is willing or able to keep playing.

If this is something you are worried about, the best way I know is to slowly implement improvements and work with your editors on how to give constructive insights and feedback for writers to grow.

At Venture 4th Media, we’ve also created an entire online training program to help writers solve specific problems that we see. We also share tips and strategies to improve the quality of content in our writers’ newsletters.

Even with all the support we give writers, not every writer wants to keep up with tougher editorial.

And, that’s okay.

But this can make finding the perfect writers tougher as well.

Content Quality Issues

When hiring a writer, even one with a stellar portfolio and tons of experience, you don’t know if that particular writer will do well with your workflows and processes.

I’ve seen some amazing writer portfolios and hired them for our content and thought, ‘meh when they submitted their first article.

This happens all the time. Even with some digging into a writer’s personal workflow and process, you never really know how much editorial got involved in those published pieces.

Every writer works differently. Some writers can work without a writer brief and instinctively know how to structure a great piece. Some writers need more support than that but can polish up a ho-hum piece with great talent.

As the bar for content quality continues to get harder, many publications and brands change writer guidelines, and as quality goalposts shift, some writers get left in the dust.

Expertise Does Not Always Equal Great Writers or Communicators

This one is a tough one! I’ve met and hired some amazing subject matter experts over the years, even ones that have previously done some writing, or have their own websites and companies.

But only certain experts can dig in and write great content. Many experts know their stuff, but creating a cohesive, quality piece of content requires them to really ‘get’ writing as well.

Many companies deal with this problem by hiring SME editors, SME fact-checkers, or working with SMEs in some way in content creation, while still hiring copywriters to do the actual copy thing. This can be a great way to solve the problem (and keep budgets reasonable as well), but does have some downsides as well.

Writers get writer’s block. Writers burn out. Human writers don’t always produce.

Writer’s blocks can happen for all sorts of reasons. One of the things we’ve done to help this is that we let writers self-select their topics. We also have a bottom-up approach and encourage writers to pitch topics.

If someone is already deep into something or has been going down their own rabbit holes digging into a topic, if it fits our editorial, we want to write about it!

Human writers are not AI robots. They get sick, disappear, get burned out from creation, and cannot just ‘perform’ with a click of a button.

That makes finding the perfect writers harder as well because even when you feel like you’ve found a golden star, anything can happen.

Things to Read, Watch, and Ponder

One of the reasons I wanted to start writing this newsletter was because of the many changes and shifts I’ve seen in content within the past few years. As we find ways to use AI in our workflows, we have to ask how to prioritize people, processes, and technology. This piece from Andy Betts, of Search Engine Land examines that question and more.

There are many ways to structure a content team, as we discussed last week. Want a look into how others are structuring their content marketing teams? Well, John Doherty of Editor Ninja has done just that. Worth a look!

I’m a huge supporter of freelancers, and this is a great inspirational story for all you brave souls who are trying to make a go of it.

I really enjoy writing these newsletters. This week is a topic I am deeply passionate about. If it wasn’t for freelance writing, I don’t know where I’d be today.

If you are struggling to find the perfect writer for your content team, reach out! I’m always happy to dig deeper into this.

Cheers! Amy

Some Bonus Newsletters You’ll Love

If you want to get into the weeds on these topics, here are a couple of newsletters to subscribe to.