5 minutes with...

Please provide a brief introduction to yourself & Bauer Media

I’ve been working for Bauer Media for about six years, starting as a freelance writer in 2016. I’ve done my fair share of different jobs here, from weekend work covering entertainment news at Grazia, to being the Senior Writer on heat and Closer Online. After completing a three-month internship fresh out of uni, I was offered a permanent job at a start-up marketing company, but instead of settling early on, I took a huge jump and decided to go freelance and try my luck at getting all the experience I could. Despite stints at Reach PLC and John Lewis, I always find myself returning to Bauer Media and I’m now a Commercial Content Writer across several publications.

Despite now focusing all my attention on affiliate, I’ve spent years interviewing celebrities, getting the scoop for showbiz and entertainment websites and magazines, studying beauty and fashion trends and even tried my luck travel writing.

Give us the inside scoop, what is your favourite part about working as a Commercial Content Writer?

I love getting stuck into a topic, doing research, and then seeing the finished result. The responsibility of finding the best products and deals for a particular audience is important to me – I love having a methodical approach and building articles from the bottom up. Researching, comparing products, nailing SEO, writing, and then seeing it do well. Even better if it’s my own personal review of a product, I love writing (at length) about a hot new product or trend. I’ve always enjoyed pitching stories and ideas wherever I’ve worked too. There’s no better feeling than when it gets chosen!

What types of products and price points are you personally looking to feature?

For price points, it really depends on the products and the brand. What I will say though, is that everyone loves a deal and a ‘hack’ these days. If you’ve got a product that can be a good dupe for a pricier one or if it can save me money – send it my way. It also needs to be easy to buy and in stock.

If you could give a PR advice on what to do to get your attention and secure coverage with you what would it be?

I know this has probably been said a lot, but just addressing the email to me personally goes a long way. I’ve been called the wrong name and ‘XX’ so many times. Also, looking at shopping gallery articles I’ve written and thinking if your product could slot in there instead of expecting a whole new article from me. We update our content a lot and it still counts as coverage for you. Try to keep emails short and sweet, give me pictures, prices and links right at the top. When it comes to gift guides, don’t send 6151414 products at once in one email, it’s really overwhelming.

Every PR knows that us journos get a lot of emails a day, so don’t get disheartened if we don’t reply. I’m not the type to delete every email, I save a lot of them for later and go back to them when I’m writing articles that could be relevant.

What is the best press event you have ever been to?

I got offered a free tattoo at an event once – that was mad! Even after years of standing on red carpets and being lucky enough to attend press events I still get a little bit of imposter syndrome so I don’t think I can pinpoint just one.

Tell us your number one top tip for someone looking to get into journalism?

Send all the emails and apply for all the jobs. The best tip I got from an editor was never stop reading just because you’re a writer now. Not only does it make you a better writer, but it really helped me remember why I wanted to do it in the first place.