Simon Busch

I’m a writer for hire. I also run big content projects and lead editorial teams.

When it comes to copywriting chops, I’m a prolific contributor to publications such as the Guardian and the Washington Post. I’ve been a Financial Times columnist (weekend features stuff, not follow-the-market stuff) and a speechwriter. And I broadcast on national radio, including the BBC.

I write and broadcast for these outlets on current affairs, culture and travel – and I bring the same wide-ranging interest and creative spirit to the business and other specialist publications that I’m also commissioned to write for. To put it another way, no matter what the subject, I know how to pull out the juicy stuff that makes people sit up and want to read more – while always keeping the specific audience of the publication (banking professionals? Noted. Senior civil servants? I hear you) firmly on the radar.

My many years as a subeditor, aka copyeditor, for what used to be called the broadsheets also probably helps in keeping people flicking through pages (real or virtual). I like to think no waffle, verbiage or hoary metaphors escape my editorial attention alive.

So: I like to write. But I’ve been writing – and editing – for long enough that I also direct other peoples’ writing, sometimes at a pretty large scale. Most recently, I was Editor in Chief on the winning bid to take over the National Lottery licence from Camelot, which had been running it since bouffant-haired TV presenters oversaw the jackpot draw in 1994. The licence is a biggie, the UK government’s largest, worth £100bn over 10 years. Gratifyingly, our 100-strong team’s victory in the bid has meant that more of that money will go to the good causes for which the National Lottery was set up.

I’ve also run content matters at a couple of government departments: the Department for Work and Pensions, one of the biggest employers in the country, and Defra, the farming and food department, where I oversaw the (often fiendishly complicated) guidance transition to Brexit. Finally, I created the content for the NHS Covid Pass at the height of the pandemic: there’s nothing like a few million people user-testing your words to concentrate the mind. (Find out more about my content design background.)

So, if you need copy that wins arguments and readers, or have a bigger content project crying out for articulate direction, let’s talk.