With a name like ‘Man Bites Dog’, we’re often asked to explain the origin story behind it. “It’s the definition of a good story,” we say.

“Why?” they ask.

Well, at any given time, somewhere in the world, a dog is biting a person. Usually only a playful nip, but it still counts. The reverse scenario offends the rules of nature; it almost never happens, so there’s normally an interesting backstory – hence, news.

The name reflects our ambition to ideate fascinating stories that move the needle and get chins, not tails, wagging. We avoid the obvious and humdrum in favour of delivering big ideas and in-depth insights that surprise and inform the reader equally. These are economic indexes, eye-catching future scenarios and unique research that carry enough velocity to resonate around the world.

It is the key to our award-winning thought leadership and why we’re proud to call ourselves the ‘growth department for intelligent brands®’. For our clients, it means brand-building cut-through, elevating them to the lofty status of Thought Maker.

Who let the dogs out?

The phrase ‘man bites dog’ evokes the newspaper boom of the late nineteenth century in New York and London, where the aphorism was born. It is most often attributed to American newspaperman John B. Bogart, who rose to prominence at a time when urbanisation and better literacy fuelled huge audiences.

"When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news," he is quoted as saying.

Printing technology became faster and cheaper, so supply of what we now might call infotainment could meet demand. Competition for eyeballs was fierce, with Bogart’s paper the Sun vying for supremacy with the World and the Journal. It was the same situation in London, where the Times, Telegraph, Daily News and a newcomer called the Daily Express were locked in a circulation battle.

But while in the UK newspapers were the preserve of the middle and upper classes, doling out information in vanilla format, Bogart popularised the notion that news should be interesting – and that interest came from difference, not necessarily scandal.

He might not have minted the famous phrase – some attribute that to previous Sun editor Charles Anderson Dana or even British newspaper magnate Alfred Harmsworth – but he certainly coined it and gave the idea (four) legs.

He was also instrumental in applying theory to practice. Along with mass circulation, newspapers developed eye-catching headlines, emotional storytelling, human interest focus and words accompanied by illustrations – and, later, photography. They amplified outlier events and delved deeper into detail, uncovering what was special.

What does 'Man Bites Dog' mean today?

With great power, as they say, comes great responsibility. It’s not easy to walk the line between good storytelling and sensationalism – or what we might now call clickbait. While some tabloids took ‘man bites dog’ to an extreme, distorting facts to augment shock value, the best publishers understood how to sell a story while remaining truthful.

Right now, getting that balance right is harder than ever. With the rise of social media and clip culture, the battle for people’s attention is as much science as it is art. The digital blizzard and information overload, increasingly driven by AI and automation, aims to ‘trigger’ the market into longer dwell times.

Newspaper circulation – which, thanks to ‘man bites dog’ principles, peaked in the mid twentieth century, topping 30 million readers for UK Sunday editions alone (two for every household) – has fallen off a cliff in the modern era.

In Japan, where newspapers remain popular, Yomiuri Shimbun is widest read, but even its mighty circulation dropped from a record 10 million in 2010, to 6.2 million in 2023, according to ABC figures.

India has the world’s largest population, but its leading daily averaged only 3.6 million editions during the same year. US newspapers no longer even make the global top ten.

The information gap created by falling readership has been replaced in part by digital editions, but also by X, Instagram, YouTube, and their Eastern equivalents.

The net result is that important, interesting information is being muscled out by AI manipulations, funny gifs, video shorts and pithy memes, instant gratification over resonant content.

Social media removed the brakes on the ethos for compelling stories, turning a witty rule of the newsroom into the omnipresent definition of what it takes people to engage, truncating both attention and memory spans in the process, blurring lines as it deluges brains.

Simply put, the job of drawing attention constructively is harder than ever.

We can’t put the genie back in the bottle, but we can stick to our guns, fashioning important, useful and engaging content to help leaders make the right decisions.

In its heyday of the printing press, inky-fingered journalists gave readers context surrounding the events of the day. We think that ethos is as important now as it was then - perhaps even more so.

It’s the job of B2B marketers to rise above the clamour, delivering timely stories to existing and prospective clients, winning the scrum for relevance against what can feel like overwhelming odds.

By sticking with the spirit of ‘man bites dog’, creating fascinating insights without compromising principles, you can build a loyal audience and booming sales, just like print journalism pioneers did all those years ago.

About Dan

Dan Matthews is head of editorial at Man Bites Dog.

Talk to Dan about custom publishing, branded magazines, websites, dynamic digital and editorial products to help your business become a thought maker in its market.

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If you'd like to speak to us about anything else, please get in touch, we'd love to help.