editorial research for publishers
The Writer Room
Stories gaining momentum, before they become assignments, for those who need to tell them first.
The Writer Room is where you can see my research methodology at work, as a writer and curator. Newsrooms, publishers and broadcasters can follow each story from the research stage and commission the ones that fit, exclusively or not.
manifesto
Editors get too many pitches and too little research. Here the research comes first: I follow the signals early, bring together what is scattered, and only offer a story once its thesis can stand up to testing.
01 · the problem
Why a newsroom pays for research
- 01
The story arrives once everyone has seen it
Subjects that make the front page give signals weeks earlier, scattered across sources nobody reads together.
- 02
Research does not fit into a deadline
Following dozens of sources per subject is research work, and newsrooms live on deadlines.
- 03
A pitch without a thesis wastes your time
Loose ideas arrive every day. Here, only stories with a defended thesis and checked sources become offers.
- 04
Exclusivity needs a clear rule
Commission a story exclusively and it leaves the market entirely, in every language. No fine print.
02 · futures cone
Where each story stands
Every signal gets a diagnosis before it becomes a story. The cone shows whether a subject is still early, gaining traction or already consensus.
03 · territories
Eight territories in research
The first stories go up in the next few days.
01The AI industry: capital, power and promiseno stories right now
Who builds AI, with whose money, under which rules, and on promises still waiting to be kept.
02Living with the machineno stories right now
What happens to trust, affection and our sense of the real once AI becomes an everyday presence.
03Work, reformattedno stories right now
Jobs, careers and leadership being redrawn by AI and by a new economy of effort.
04Marketing and the new architecture of attentionno stories right now
Search became an answer, the feed became intent and the buyer may be an agent: marketing is relearning where attention lives.
05Journalism under contestno stories right now
Money, political power, AI and vanishing traffic are fighting over what journalism can still be.
06Culture, entertainment and creatorsno stories right now
Studios, streamers, artists and creators renegotiating who pays, who owns and who reaches the audience.
07Platforms, surveillance and rightsno stories right now
Platforms and states run as public infrastructure without answering for it.
08Behavior and inner lifeno stories right now
How people feel, learn, burn out and remake themselves in accelerated times.
04 · the method
Semantic curation cycles
Curate by concept, not by date or by source.
A source matters because of the concept it feeds, not because it is new or famous. And in a world of infinite content, what stays out is as decisive as what gets in.
sources
A radar of around 190 feeds: publications, newsletters, research outlets, channels and communities. Around 60 relevant sources come in every day, each qualified by concept and angle.
signals
Whatever survives the filter gets a diagnosis on the Futures Cone, with urgency, application and a guardrail on how the subject must not be used.
concepts
Signals crystallise into concepts indexed by thesis, tension and territory. This is where the heavy thinking happens, and the part AI does not do for me.
stories
A concept whose thesis holds becomes a story on this showcase: first in research, then pitch ready.
publication
You commission it, receive the dossier and publish. What circulates comes back as a signal for the next cycle.
The same method feeds the Conceitotecas, where part of the curation is open to read. Conceitoteca mauroamaral.com · Conceitoteca Contém Conteúdo
05 · request a story
Is there a subject that needs research before it becomes an assignment?
Describe the subject and, if you have them, the first sources. I reply personally. Whoever asks gets first option to commission the story once it is ready.
06 · who researches
Mauro Amaral.
Writer, researcher and curator. More than 20 years across content, strategy and research, with a master's in Communication from UERJ and an early foot in Brazilian podcasting. From the frontier between technology, communication and culture, I look for the why behind what we see.