“Nobody ever said, ‘I want a generic byline by a corporate executive.”
Recently, I sat down with Ben Worthen, the chief product officer at Orchestra. We covered a lot of ground, including his career path, the art of storytelling, and the growing role of AI in communications.
Of everything Ben shared, one idea stood out the most. As a former journalist turned communications leader, he’s built his approach around a deceptively simple question: “Why does anyone care?” It’s a powerful reminder that no matter the medium or the moment, great storytelling always begins with the audience.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length. You can watch the full interview here.
Ed Harrison: You began your career at CIO Magazine and then transitioned to becoming a journalist at The Wall Street Journal. What’s the common thread that has guided your work across journalism, venture capital, and now communications?
Ben Worthen: Honestly, the common thread is curiosity. I couldn’t believe people would pay me to ask questions and learn the answers. That curiosity has carried through everything I’ve done, from journalism to content marketing to thinking about AI adoption. At the Journal, the most important lesson drilled into me was to always ask: Why does anybody care? If you couldn’t answer that, you didn’t have a story.
Ed: How does that question—“why does anybody care?”—apply to communications today?
Ben: It applies everywhere. Whether you’re pitching PR, writing a social post, or sending an email, the job is the same: How do you make someone care? If you can’t, you’ve lost before you’ve started. In a media environment where attention spans are short and competition for eyeballs is fierce, that discipline is more important than ever. It forces communicators to focus on relevance, on what actually matters to the audience, instead of falling back on internal talking points or jargon.
Ed: What kind of stories actually make people care?
Ben: People want to hear how someone like them solved a problem they can relate to—more than anything else. At Message Lab, we interviewed hundreds of people across roles, industries, and companies. Consistently, they told us the same thing: they wanted real stories about peers solving relatable problems, and data that helped them make better decisions. Nobody said, “I want a generic byline by a corporate executive.”
And the more specific those stories were, the better they landed. A small business owner doesn’t want a sweeping overview of industry trends—they want to know how another business owner navigated a hiring crunch, or what an engineering VP did to scale a product team. Those details are what allow readers to plug themselves into the story and take away something practical.
Ed: Why do you think that approach resonates more than tips or generic content?
Ben: Generic “three tips” content is too broad and often unhelpful. It rarely acknowledges the expertise that audiences already have. Andrew Stanton from Pixar put it best: people want to do the work, they just don’t want to know they’re working. When you hear how someone like you solved a challenge, you can apply that thinking to your own situation. It’s relatable, practical, and empowering. Compare that to a listicle written without much depth—it just doesn’t stick.
Ed: If you had to distill it down, what’s your biggest storytelling takeaway?
Ben: Always come back to that same test: Why does anybody care? If you can’t answer it, you don’t have a story. If you can, you’re on your way to making people actually listen and act. Storytelling isn’t about what you want to say—it’s about what the audience needs to hear, and how you can deliver it in a way that feels human and useful. That’s what separates communications that get ignored from those that spark connection.
Ben’s reflections highlight something timeless: in a world overflowing with information, what cuts through is not polish or volume, but clarity and relevance. For communicators, marketers, and leaders alike, the question “Why does anybody care?” remains the ultimate filter for deciding whether an idea is worth sharing.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series, where Ben and I shift gears to discuss AI, innovation, and the future of storytelling.
