5 minutes with...

Please provide a brief intro to yourself & the magazines you work across

I’ve been at Chelsea Magazines for a couple of years now, starting off as a content producer and now as Digital Editor for a few different brands. I’m mainly responsible for the digital output for Baby, Wedding Ideas, Little London and now Cruise International, but I also work on audience insights and online content strategy across the whole portfolio.

What is your favourite part of the job?

The variety! One minute I’m curating a listicle of the best weaning products for Baby, the next it’s a wedding venue review or looking into the content opportunities around Caribbean cruises. There’s never really an opportunity to get bored of one subject matter, but this does mean there’s a lot of spinning plates - and for a naturally quite disorganised person this doesn’t always bode well. I’m sure more than a few people are fed up with hearing about my ‘manic inbox’.

Tell us about the most memorable approach you’ve had from a PR!

Working on several different titles throughout my career so far, I’ve had my fair share of interesting press drops, double-take subject lines and exciting invites. I was once sent a box of snow for the release of Frozen 2 – I think my office manager will always remember that one.

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

Again, this really does vary from title to title. With the strain of the pandemic on the bridal industry and couples hoping to marry, the focus has been on budget friendly and ‘micro’ wedding trends, while over at Baby, the focus on family and a baby boom has created a demand for more luxury and high-quality pieces.

Do you have any advice for PRs?

This isn’t the most exciting but working predominantly online I have to always think about the audience (both in terms of search and social) and so when a PR leads with stats on the subject (such as a shift in search trends or a growing social trend) and really looks at whether we’ve already covered the topic on the website; if this new info could serve as an update for an existing piece or if there is a gap for a new feature or news-y piece, then that is always really helpful.

You’ve worked at some amazing magazines past and present! Did you always know you wanted to get into journalism?

It started with my year abroad, working in Paris. I studied languages (French and Italian) at university and somehow managed to blag an internship at Vogue Paris. I was mainly working on translations for the international website but every now and then I got to be creative and write up a few of my own pieces. I had great mentors and learnt so much about writing digital and social content. This spurred me on to hunt down work experience at various online titles, eventually I ended up with a permanent online writer position at heat and then the rest is history.

Tell us something fun that people don't know about you?

Paris Hilton follows me on Twitter (and I check every day to make sure she still does!). I think she had a very active press team at the time (or some kind of bot) and I used to write a few pieces on her back at heat and Grazia. I’m just waiting for the day her team realise my boring tweets aren’t worth the follow!