The future of content: why long-form still matters
Back in 2013, Wright Thompson, the sportswriter at ESPN, wrote a feature article called “Unity with the Universe”. It’s a story about fishing rods. Set in the hills of Montana, it’s centred on a man named Tom Morgan, and it’s about his relationship with his wife Gerri, both of whom buck convention in their day-to-day lives. It’s one of the most engaging pieces of narrative journalism I’ve ever read – an expertly crafted article that sprawls over thousands of words, and it creates a world, in the same vein as classic writers like Hunter S. Thompson and Ernest Hemingway.
As with all good stories, our main character, Tom, goes on a journey, to discover something about himself and to find his true calling. There’s a theme of perfectionism that shapes the story, which is rich in detail and closer to a fictional narrative. That, in a nutshell, is the essence of long-form writing. It allows you to go deep, add more value and create an imprint in people’s minds through storytelling, however abstract or complex.
However, this form of novelistic writing has been in decline for the past decade, with the modern web reducing attention spans. Now, most people prefer short-form content or podcasts – the type of content that’s flexible and easy to follow while juggling other tasks. 73% of consumers prefer learning about products through short-form videos, and Spotify alone currently hosts over 3.2 million podcasts. Looking at these numbers, short form is clearly a powerhouse and has captured attention in the digital age.
But long-form content is still alive and kicking. The problem is it takes up a lot of time and money, and considering media companies are struggling to sustain themselves, it’s no surprise there’s been a shift toward shorter, snappier content, designed for readers on mobile phones. But you still cannot overlook the value that long-form content can bring, both from a creative and business perspective.
The power of long-form content
Firstly, long-form offers readers a rare gift: worldbuilding, quality writing and sustained attention. It focuses on stories that need room to breathe with a narrative that slowly builds in intensity, taking readers to a certain place, in a way that’s interesting to read. It’s approaching a story like a director on a movie set and asking questions like, who are the main characters? What descriptions can I use to best tell this story? What is happening, and why is it important? It allows you to deliver in-depth experiences, moving beyond the limitation of short form by building deeper engagement and authority.
But not all stories deserve that kind of attention. There has to be something ‘there’, an actual story to grasp onto and that you can actually see in your head. It is its own genre of content that requires patience from the creator and a desire to look at a story from multiple angles, using relevant sources while paying attention to every word. All of that takes a lot of work. It’s a specific skill. In journalism, long-form features often take months to produce because they’re deeply reported and fact-checked. Writing long-form, ultimately, shows depth of thinking – and they can be more thoughtful, insightful and informative.
The question is what’s working in long-form these days? The best-performing long-form content tends to be dynamic, interactive and uses a range of assets. Some of the most memorable long-form pieces in recent years use a full-screen, distraction-reading experience. Here’s an example: In 2024, Arsenal F.C. published The Rise and Rise of Bukayo Saka, a long-form story about Saka’s journey at the club. The story used images to show the players and to illustrate Saka’s growth from a product of the Hale End Academy to becoming one of the most influential figures at the football club.
Written by Josh James, the article offers sports fans the chance to get to know the player they root for but using a much more immersive form of storytelling. It uses images and quotes to keep the reader’s attention, pulling them into Saka’s story, and to get them to click through to other content afterwards. That’s the power of long-form content. There’s more room to draw in and engage readers with more elaborate, nuanced information. In this way, writers can take the time to peel back the layers of a story, paying respect to the curiosity and intelligence of its audience. It brings a human dimension to different topics that appeal to the interest of readers.
Evergreen value, visibility and impact
For creators and publishers, there’s never been a better time to invest in long-form storytelling. If we’re to talk about its value from a commercial point of view, there’s a lot to unpack. Long-form offers evergreen value, which is content that stays relevant over a long period of time. By its very nature, long-form content is more comprehensive and in-depth, which means it can draw more eyes from visitors. From my experience, long-form content does work if you want to keep online readers interested.
Think about it: the more advice and insight creators can share with readers about a topic, the better they can demonstrate expertise. Going deep into my content suits me well because I like to add as much value as possible, and the result is the reader gets a better experience. When I think about long-form content, I see it as a network of ideas focused on a singular thought. The primary idea and the offshoots are like branches of the same tree, making the audience think from varying perspectives. Studies have shown that long-form content gets more engagement and traffic. For example, long-form blog posts generate 7x more leads than short-form posts, and long-form content tends to get more social shares. So, when you give readers depth, they’ll want to share it with others. The detail, the depth and the authenticity increase the chances of your content capturing attention.
But it’s not just about big numbers. That alone isn’t what makes good content. Long-form content builds connections with readers. Why? Because in-depth writing can be personalised for their interests and issues, and the result of this is a strong relationship between the writer and the reader. That kind of relationship is built on trust, value and relevancy.
For long-form content to be sustainable in the future, it has to be designed with personalisation in mind. Whether it’s an editorial or a piece of marketing content, the personal touch is key for creating positive experiences that make people feel something. According to research by McKinsey, personalisation has been shown to improve performance and provide better customer outcomes. As a writer, your customer is your reader and that means appealing to their needs by creating long-form content that answers a question or solves a problem, much like Thompson’s “Unity with the Universe”.
Long-form content gives you more space to play, think and draw audience interest. It still has a place, even though the world continues to produce content at scale and isn’t showing signs of slowing down. With long form, brands and publishers have the opportunity to create connections and content experiences spark serious interest, and that live long in the memory.
