Inside The Studio With Nick Clunn

Welcome to Inside The Studio—a look at the strategists, designers and creatives behind Forbes’ award-winning content and design studio. Each month, you will get to know one of the studio’s team members, learn about their role and find out what advice they have for fellow storytellers.

Up first is Nick Clunn, an associate managing editor in the Forbes Content & Design Studio. Nick has been with Forbes for six years and has led campaigns for client partners like Tableau, Cole Haan and TD Bank. His dog, Sadie, is a frequent guest star in Zoom meetings.

Q: Tell us about your role within the Forbes Content & Design Studio. 

NC: I essentially function as a content lead on programs. Every program that involves Forbes creating the content is assigned a content lead who makes sure that whatever we produce achieves the client’s objectives and resonates with the target audience. Content leads also have to keep in mind the Forbes brand identity when developing content, which is what makes native advertising work different from other types of paid content. My position requires a great deal of collaboration, which I enjoy. On a day-to-day basis, I’m working with content designers, freelance writers and other teams at Forbes. 

Q: What’s something you’re really proud of since joining the studio?

NC: The studio recruits a lot of third-party creatives: writers, designers and illustrators that we bring onto projects on a case-by-case basis. So at the same time I'm running programs, I’m also recruiting to make sure that our freelancer pool is composed of talented writers who also have a range of perspectives and come from different backgrounds. Last year, 46% of the writing assignments made by all studio editors went to freelancers of color.

Q: As an editor, what do you think differentiates “good” copy from “great” copy?

NC: To have great copy, you need great details. And to have great details, you need high-quality source material. So, great writing always starts with strong reporting, and that means interviewing the right people and asking thought-provoking questions. Or, in the case of our Forbes Insights business, it means having eye-opening survey results to write about. A big part of great writing is thoroughly understanding the subject matter. 

Q: What is a campaign you worked on that has always stuck with you?

NC: We did a five-part Premium Post series called “Military Made” for the Department Of Defense in 2019 that I enjoyed. They wanted to showcase service members who, upon leaving the military, found success in either a career or in starting a business. 

Each post was a profile of one service member, and we really got to explore these personal stories. We traveled all over the country to shoot photos, and on the page, we mixed the new photography with photographs that were provided by the people we featured. We also layered in audio. 

So in the post overall, not only were you reading about someone’s life story, you were also seeing the people and hearing their story in their own words. So for me, that was a successful program. And now that Covid isn’t as prevalent, I'm hoping to work more with photography and go out and meet some of the people we get to write about.

Q: How do you stay motivated and productive while working from home?

NC: When you try new things in content, oftentimes you're going to find out that they ultimately won’t work. And you might feel frustrated because you just put in all this time, and it didn’t amount to anything. But when you try something new, and you see it live on the page, that becomes extremely gratifying. It’s those moments that fuel motivation for the next time. 

Q: Last question—what advice would you give to other editors?

NC: This is something our studio head said recently: If you're given a topic that you might perceive to be inherently uninteresting, that doesn't give you permission to create uninteresting work. If you're writing about a topic and think “people aren't going to care about this” that doesn't give you an out to make your copy not interesting. Rather, you have to see that as a challenge. The question has to become: What do I have to do to make this interesting? What interesting angle do I need to find? Or what people can I talk to who will have an interesting perspective?

Got a question you want to ask Nick? Add it in the comments and stay tuned for next month's Inside The Studio spotlight.

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