About Bart King
Strategic communications for complex utility markets
I’m the founder and principal of New Growth Communications. I help utility vendors communicate their value more clearly across the messaging, content, proof and workflows that support a long, multi-stakeholder buying process.
My work sits at the intersection of industry knowledge, strategic communications and writing. I’ve spent more than two decades translating technical and commercial complexity for specialized audiences, first as a journalist covering clean energy and sustainability and later as a consultant and content strategist.
Today, that experience informs both the NewGrowth Engine for Utility Vendors™ and the strategic content I continue to develop for utility-sector companies. Whether I’m diagnosing a broader communication system, developing a major piece of thought leadership or helping shape the narrative of a utility proposal, the underlying challenge is similar: understand what the audience needs to know, identify the proof that supports it and communicate it clearly.
From journalism to utility communications
I began my career as a freelance writer after earning a journalism degree from the University of Georgia and later an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University.
As news editor for SustainableBusiness.com and an associate editor for Sustainable Brands, I covered clean energy, sustainability, business and policy. I also hosted and produced the Green Week in Review podcast and wrote opinion pieces for publications including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Birmingham News.
That work put me in regular contact with the technologies, companies and people reshaping the energy sector. In 2009, helping Atlanta-based smart grid technology company, E3 Greentech, helped convince me to move from journalism into client-side communications. I founded Cleantech Communications that year, bringing an editorial approach to companies working in energy and technology.
“He took the time to truly understand my ideas and concepts… and transforms my telephone diatribes, random notes and hurried drafts into finished pieces that not only help achieve business goals, but also mark accomplishments in my career.”
The practice became New Growth Communications in 2013, and electric-utility technology has remained a central part of my work since the start.
I’ve worked with companies across the utility-technology ecosystem on complex subjects ranging from grid modernization and distributed energy resources to analytics, software, infrastructure and emerging technologies. My role has often been the same: understand the technical substance, find the commercial story inside it and help communicate that story in a way that speaks to utility stakeholders.
The work has also taken me onto industry-conference stages as a speaker, moderator and emcee. Among other events, I served as an on-stage host for Smart Grid Update’s Data Analytics for the Utility Industry conference in San Francisco in 2013.
Where that led
Years of working with utility vendors made one thing increasingly clear to me: strong communication is not just a matter of producing good content.
Utility-buying decisions unfold across long timelines, multiple stakeholders and changing information needs. A message that works for one audience or stage may fail completely for another. Proof has to arrive at the right time. Sales and marketing have to reinforce one another, and technical expertise has to survive the journey from SME to buyer without losing its accuracy or relevance.
That realization led to the development of the NewGrowth Engine for Utility Vendors™, a more systematic way of diagnosing, designing and improving commercial communication for the way utilities make decisions.
I still write. In fact, developing high-value content remains an important part of my work. But today I bring a broader systems perspective to my work, making sure each piece fits into the buying process.
Beyond the work
I live in Athens, Georgia, with my family. Outside New Growth, I’m still drawn to many of the things that shaped my early career: writing, photography and the outdoors.
I’ve published four children’s books through Fair Shake Press, served in a variety of community roles, and helped co-found the Forest Heights Community Blueberry Project and Festival.