When company newsletters feel like a media brand: Storyarb’s The Standard
Content Ideas, Issue #14 | One standout B2B content marketing example each edition
Hey content friends,
If we’re really honest with ourselves, most company newsletters end up feeling like thinly veiled promotion. They exist to nudge readers towards services or products, and the readers can smell it from the subject line.
So when a branded newsletter actually feels worth subscribing to for its own merit, it’s getting added straight to my ideas log.
This month, that’s The Standard by Storyarb.
Let’s dive in.
Content Ideas: The Standard by Storyarb
What they did:
Storyarb is a B2B content agency – they’re all about world-class copywriting and editorial strategy for modern brands.
Instead of a typical company newsletter pushing their services, they created The Standard – a weekly newsletter that sounds and reads like an old-school news publication.
The branding leans into that newspaper aesthetic, and each edition follows a consistent format: a headline piece from a marketing leader weighing in on trending topics or hard-won lessons, followed by repeatable sections like “From our marketing-inspo file to yours.”
Some editions feature Storyarb’s own team – like CEO Alex Lieberman discussing AI implementation – but (IMO) the strongest ones bring in external marketing leaders to share career-defining projects and the lessons learnt along the way.
Take their edition featuring Morgan Selzer, sharing the inside story of the Headspace x Sesame Street collaboration from her time as Chief Content Officer at Headspace.
It’s the kind of practitioner insight you might expect from an industry publication, not a vendor newsletter.
What makes this a great content marketing example:
The newspaper aesthetic screams “I know my audience”. Naming it “The Standard” and designing it like a newspaper immediately signals what this is: editorial content, not marketing collateral. For a content agency whose business is editorial newsletters and thought leadership, this alignment is perfect. But it also taps into something deeper – plenty of content marketers have journalism backgrounds or grew up dreaming of working on publications like that. The format speaks to who the audience is, not just what they do. Your content strategy should reflect your business strategy and serve your audience – and Storyarb’s does exactly that.
“By Storyarb” creates crucial editorial distance. It’s not “The Storyarb Newsletter” – it’s The Standard, brought to you by Storyarb. That framing matters. The content stands on its own as valuable even if you never engage with Storyarb as a vendor. (Similar to how Vector’s Proven Playbooks teach you growth tactics whether you bought their product or not – educational first, brand second.)
External voices build credibility. The editions that bring in marketing leaders from companies like Headspace feel like gaining access to insider knowledge. Storyarb becomes the curator and connector, not the brand demanding attention.
Repeatable format removes friction. Readers know what they’re getting each week through the standardised format and regular cadence. There’s comfort in consistency – you’re not wondering if this edition will be worth opening, because the format proves its value over time.
What this example made me reflect on:
Does our content format and branding reflect what our business does and who our audience is?
How much editorial distance does our content have from our brand? Does it exist to serve our audience first, or promote our company?
Are we positioning ourselves as the expert, or creating space for practitioners to share their experiences?
Kudos to the Storyarb team for this one 👏
What content examples have caught your attention lately? Hit reply and let me know – I’m always on the lookout for the most creative, unique, inspirational examples to cover.
Speak soon,
Tabitha
P.S. If you found this useful, please share it with a fellow content marketer. Word of mouth is how we grow this little community 🫶