I spent twenty years in newsrooms and magazine offices before I started The Media Barr. Editors care about one thing more than anything: does the reader keep reading? Marketers care about a lot of things — campaigns, funnels, KPIs, "messaging." That's why most marketing copy reads like marketing copy. Here are five rules editors use that any marketer can steal tomorrow.

Rule 1: Cut the first sentence. Always.

The first sentence of almost every first draft is throat-clearing. It's the writer warming up. The real opening is usually sentence two or three. Try it: read the first paragraph of anything you've written in the last week. Delete the opening sentence. Read again. It's almost always better.

Before: "In today's fast-paced digital landscape, brands are constantly searching for ways to connect with their audiences. We help them do that."

After: "We help brands connect with their audiences."

Same meaning. Half the words. Twice as confident.

The first sentence is for you. The second sentence is for the reader. Cut yours.

Rule 2: Use a verb where there's an "of"

"Of" is a tell. Every "of" usually means there's a stronger verb hiding in the sentence.

Verbs are alive. Nouns are dead. Trade up.

Rule 3: One idea per sentence

Marketers love compound sentences with three commas, two "ands," a "but," and a parenthetical. Editors hate them. Each idea gets its own sentence. The result reads faster and lands harder.

Before: "Our team brings deep experience across social media, email marketing, and content strategy, and we partner with brands to develop comprehensive campaigns that drive measurable results across every channel."

After: "We do social, email, and content. We build campaigns that work. Across every channel."

Same content. Three sentences. Way better.

Rule 4: Read it aloud. Where you stumble, rewrite.

This is the single highest-leverage editing trick in publishing and almost nobody does it in marketing. Read your draft out loud. Where you stumble, where you have to take a breath, where the sentence doesn't sound like a person — that's where to rewrite.

Bonus: anything that sounds embarrassing said aloud is also embarrassing in print. You just usually don't notice in print.

Rule 5: The conclusion is usually inside paragraph 2

Writers bury the lede. Editors find it. Look at any draft. Find the most insightful, sharpest, most quotable sentence. It's almost always 2–4 paragraphs in. Move it to the top. Cut everything that came before. Now you have a strong opening.

Headlines work the same way. The most interesting framing of your post is usually buried in paragraph 2 of the article. That's your headline.

Tools that don't fix this Grammarly, Hemingway, ChatGPT — they polish surface-level grammar. They don't catch buried ledes, weak verbs, or dead first sentences. Those are editorial calls. Make them yourself.

The 10-minute copy audit

Pull the last 5 things you've written publicly — captions, emails, blog post intros. For each, do this:

  1. Read the first sentence. Does it earn the reader's attention? If not, cut.
  2. Highlight every "of." Rewrite at least half as verbs.
  3. Read the whole thing aloud. Mark every stumble. Rewrite those.
  4. Find the sharpest line in the piece. Is it the headline / opener? If not, move it.
  5. Re-read. If you wouldn't share this voluntarily with someone you respect, it's not done.

What this looks like in practice

One client (a wellness brand) had a homepage hero that read: "At [brand], we're passionate about empowering women to live their healthiest, most authentic lives through carefully formulated supplements grounded in science and rooted in tradition."

We rewrote it to: "Supplements that actually do something. Made by a woman who got tired of the bullshit."

Same brand. Different conversion rate. (4x.)

Why this matters more than ever

Every brand now has access to the same AI tools writing the same generic copy. The brands that sound like a person are about to dominate the brands that sound like a brand. Editorial discipline is no longer a nice-to-have. It's the moat.

Cut the first sentence. Trade your "of"s for verbs. One idea per sentence. Read aloud. Move the buried lede.

You don't need a creative writing degree. You need a red pen. Use it.