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Lisa gives Emma Champion an insight into the world of women’s magazines… More Magazine was once most famous for its “position” feature. Has there been a conscious effort made by More’s current team to bring the magazine’s overall style in line with rival publications? Yes – we made a conscious decision in September last year to make some significant changes to More’s editorial. That was because we had been speaking to readers and finding out what they wanted from the magazine, and, of course, for a brand that’s twenty-one years old, it’s important that we keep reinventing and keep refreshing our offering. What they came back with, kind of overwhelmingly, was that they really loved More, that they were really loyal to it, but what they were looking for was, perhaps, something more contemporary, more sophisticated, and something more flattering as a “badge” brand – something they could walk around with. One of the big changes that we then made on the back of that was how we tackled the sex, because what we wanted to do was actually show our reader’s maturity and we didn’t want something overly explicit. We wanted to move on with the way the magazine spoke to the readers – to include sex, but not in a crass, or a “sex for sex’s sake” sort of way – like a conversation that might take place between friends – and that’s more tasteful, and it’s certainly not what defines you. So along with that we decided to change our sex content, so that was about handling it more tastefully in the magazine. So, for example, if you were sitting on a bus there would be no big pictures that would cause people to look over your shoulder! Obviously, we kept the “Position of the Week” (formerly “Position of the Fortnight”) because it’s a huge sub-brand, and readers weren’t saying that they’re not interested in sex, because obviously they are, as it’s a big part of any modern relationship. They just wanted it presented in a more useful, tasteful way. Where did your career begin? What did you start out doing? I started as a Junior Writer at Bliss Magazine, after I had done my Journalism degree at the London College of Printing. Now that you are a busy editor, how does a typical day go for you? Because we’re a weekly, we have quite a regimented structure to our day, which is not necessarily typical of all magazines – monthlies are a bit more fluid. A usual morning would be, we’d come in, we’d go through the papers, we’d catch up. There is usually a big pile of proofs on the desk, so I’d have to go through those. Then we do a news meeting, and that’s to go through all the celebrity news, which is, say, new paparazzi photos which have come in, catching up on news that has been covered in other publications, and also, to ask the news team how their leads have come on - like whether they’ve managed to get an interview with someone – so we’ll have a meeting each morning to catch up with all of that. And then we’ll usually make changes to the “flat plan”, so we might decide to change a feature, or some news about a celebrity might have come in…fashion and beauty work slightly differently, as that team works two or three issues ahead; features, on the whole, do work further ahead, so that’s much more calm and controlled, whereas the news pages are a bit last minute. Throughout the day is when it changes – lots of meetings about plans for future issues – fashion tips, beauty, obviously working on the cover, going out and meeting advertisers, and making sure that the issue is the best that it can be, really. More used to be a fortnightly publication, and is now weekly. Was that a change which took place during your time at the magazine? Yes. When I came in, one of the first things we did was take it weekly. That was because the market has obviously changed so much, and, again, with More having been around for twenty years or so, things have changed during that time. It used to be that only the older women’s magazines were weekly – things like Take a Break. Of course, over the past ten years we’ve seen magazines like Heat, Closer – all of the celeb weeklies – Grazia, Look – come on to the scene. As a fortnightly, we we’re in a strange place, because we were faster than a monthly but slower than a weekly; and our readers live their lives through “fast media” - twenty-four hour TV, multi-channel TV, the internet, email, text messaging – fortnightly just seemed, really, a bit slow and a bit out-of-date. It was a challenge, because no mag before has really successfully changed their frequency, and it’s hard because you have to change a lot of pre-conceptions, and reposition yourself (in the market), but without a big launch budget. Usually when you get a new mag launch, you’ve got millions of pounds to spend on marketing, and we weren’t in that position. So it was about changing the frequency, and then following that up with a change in editorial to show the difference. It must have changed things a lot, in terms of the deadlines you had, and things like that… Yeah, it was a learning curve for everyone - it’s quite a change going from fortnightly into weekly. But, actually, it’s better because it gives you more of a routine so you kind of know what’s happening on what day, you’re much quicker to respond to things, you can be really topical, which you just can’t do on a fortnightly. Which magazines do you read and admire? I like a lot of supplements, actually. I really like Observer Woman, Weekend Magazine – probably because they’re very different from my day-to-day, and it’s nice to read something without going, “Ooh, we should be doing that!” I also think Grazia’s a brilliant magazine; I think it has changed the way older women’s magazines work in the weekly market. And I think mags like Psychologies and Easy Living are doing some quite interesting things and changing their market. I agree – Psychologies is one of my favourites, just because it’s different… It’s obviously a smart magazine, isn’t it? It’s a bit more challenging, a bit more in-depth. It’s a huge thing for women in our sort of age group (Lisa is in her early thirties – and I am approaching thirty), as we’ve begun to analyse ourselves a bit more, and have become more self-aware, I guess. What qualities do you look for in the articles/writing you consider for your magazine? Really, I’m an “ideas first” person. What I’m always looking for is just a brilliant idea or new take on something. On a weekly, you’ve got a high level of content, and what you really want is an outstanding idea that will surprise the reader, or surprise the market – something interesting, or a little bit different. From there, I look at the journalist, really, and their ability to get the story. I think so much of being a great writer is being a great interviewer, for example. Or, being the sort of person who looks at how you can make something better, stronger, and to do that at a weekly speed as well – how quickly you can turn around your idea and make it a reality. I think in a lot of ways, that’s what I look for as well as the writing. Last week’s issue looked at the “Life Clock” phenomenon (when women become convinced they should have done certain things by a certain age, and set themselves a timeline to work towards). Do you set yourself goals and deadlines in the life you lead outside of the magazine? God, yeah! I don’t really know anyone that doesn’t. Those goals move all the time, that’s for sure. The rate at which you think you might achieve things moves all the time. In particular, you can see it with our readers, when they say, “I’ll have a child by this age”, or “I’ll have a career move by this age”. Of course, life changes, and different options arise. I think that’s a universal trait to all women – it’s about having ambitions and goals, and a choice to work towards. Do you and your writers often draw from your own experiences and relationships when deciding on topics for the magazine? Or do your features come largely from outside sources and research? We do with relationship stuff, without a doubt. We all find ourselves in similar situations, or meet similar characters, or have similar challenges, so there’s definitely an element of empathy that comes from the editors or the writers. Actually, with a lot of the features ideas, how we work is we go out, meet the readers, and talk to them about what they’re worried about, what issues they’re facing, and what they’d like advice on. So, we take “seeds” from them and then what we look for is new research, surveys and insights that kind of meet in the middle, if you like. So, you take a problem, research the solution and an idea can be born from that. So it does come to us in lots of different ways, and it is quite funny when we have a features meeting, and one of them has just split up with a boyfriend, you get a lot of ideas for features on “How to Get Over a Man” for example, and that comes out of the way people are feeling, but we have to think about what our readers might be feeling or going through, and make sure it’s not too personal. In your opinion, is freelance journalism as rewarding as a permanent role held at a publication like More? They’re very different – very, very different. A lot of freelance writers are people who want to be writers, so they want to get lots of experience and it’s brilliant to see your work in print. Obviously the better pieces you produce, or the better scoops that you land, or the magazine or newspaper that you get to work for – each of these elements will bring a different level of satisfaction. On the flip side, a lot of people that work for magazines want to move up the career ladder – they might want to become an editor one day, or a features editor – so it really depends what your personal goals are. If you think that you never want to get into the management and planning stage which, ultimately, comes with becoming an editor, and what you really want to do is meet as many people as possible write lots of things and do that in lots of diverse ways, then a freelance path might be more suited to you. I suppose it comes down to the individual then, really... I think a lot of people try both so I thinks that the reality. I know lots of people here (at More) who did a couple of years of freelance, a couple of years of features desk, and actually keep moving between them because they do have different advantages, really. Also when you get into a more senior position on a magazine, you write – well, not very much, actually. You write less and less, and you end up really missing it, because that’s why you get into it in the first place. So, yes – I think it’s really personal; I think both have lots of successes and advantages, so I guess it comes down to trial and error a little bit. What advice would you give to someone just starting out in the world of writing and journalism? I would say work experience is really invaluable – seeing how the world works and understanding different hierarchy, different demands…trying just to read a lot of magazines, newsletters and articles is really important because you can learn to be a better writer for doing that. You can also develop critical skills - looking at how a piece is put together, what influences have they got, who did they speak to, etc. I think anywhere you can write is really good, so what you’re doing at ChickLit is a really good idea – you’re going to help build up a portfolio, so that when you do come in to speak to someone, you’re going to have some published work to show them, which is great. I think the other thing to do is to come up with ideas and pitch them to people – put your stuff out there and just show your enthusiasm because that’s really important as well. Does More Magazine have any surprises up its sleeve that readers can look forward to in the future? I would never reveal them! (Laughs) The market is so competitive that we keep our surprises up our sleeves! Absolutely! I don’t blame you at all! And finally, what’s next for you? What’s the next move in your career? Well, in September I shall be moving on to Stylist Magazine, which is a new launch from Shortlist Media. And that’s quite a different market, actually. It’s a free weekly magazine for twenty-five to forty year-old women – working women – working in big cites, commuting. It’s going to be very smart, intelligent, fashion-focussed, beauty-focussed, but also, with grace. It’ll be a brand-new magazine, so there will be the excitement of working on the launch and bringing that all together, and seeing how that pans out as it moves along. I’m really excited about it. |
| Posted: 05/08/2009 09:20:07 Last Updated: 20/08/2009 17:21:34 |
Chick Lit > Lifestyle :: In Conversation with More Magazine's Lisa Smosarski