Welcome to Media Hotshots, a series of interviews with some of the most celebrated Editors in lifestyle, fashion, beauty and interiors media today. All of the Editors interviewed in this series subscribe to PRShots and PressArea and the majority of those have said that heavily rely on its service in order to make their jobs easier, therefore the opportunity for you and your brands to gain more coverage into their pages is made all the more possible and this series of interviews is aimed at not only celebrating their lives, but to help provide you with some golden nuggets that if used, could make you a complete hero
(00:44) Nick Osborn
I want to welcome everyone to the fifth in a series of interviews that we're holding with celebrated editors within the lifestyle, fashion, beauty, and interiors media. Katie Wright who's the fashion and beauty editor for The Press Association, and what we're going to be discussing during this interview, amongst other things is: -
(01:39)
So without further ado, here, we've got the brilliant Katie Wright, Fashion and Beauty Editor for The Press Association, just to give a bit of an intro zone since leaving University in 2005, a bachelor's degree in psychology, which is awesome, I love that, Katie went on to work at John Lewis CSR department, then became the online reporter for Waitrose before heading to the Press Association as a Features Writer, and for last six years, there as Fashion and Beauty Editor covering a wide range of topics from Fashion, Beauty, Lifestyle, Well-being to Food, Travel and Book Reviews, plus, conducting celebrity interviews, which is awesome, I love that, and writing in depth features for print and digital customers, the list goes on. So really also with a vast amount of knowledge from both client and media side, over a lot of publications; it's a real big honour to actually have Katie, and I'm going to put a little bit of a cheer going in there.
Katie Wright: Haha! So professional
Nick Osborn
I always start off the interviews by asking how you went from education to becoming an Editor, and yours is particularly interesting, because you left with a bachelor's degree in psychology, I guess it was probably a bit of a change of direction
Katie Wright (02:50)
Yes, I have absolutely no training in journalism whatsoever. I did have a pretty big career change, so we can kind of gloss over my early career, but it was when I was in John Lewis head office, in the Corporate Social Responsibility department - that was when I started getting interested in Fashion and Beauty, and I started blogging in my spare time. So I joined a fashion blog that just found online, and then a group of us girls ended up starting our own blog, and rather than wanting it to be this big thing that we grew for the sake of the blog, we just wanted it as our portfolio so that we could get writing experience, and it was really useful for that. And then I decided that I wanted to try and get into journalism, and I went down to four days a week, John Lewis, and then I was looking for work experience, and one of the girls from the blog told me about Press Association, which I have to point out has now been rebranded to PA Media - it must be called PA Media at all times, although obviously everyone who's been in industry for a while knew us previously as Press Association. And so I started on work experience in the features department, just one day a week, and then that became a freelance role. And then it became two days a week that was when I was on secondment at Waitrose Chronical , doing that three days a week. And then after about two and a half years, the Fashion and Beauty Editor role came up, and I applied and I got the job.
Nick Osborn
Wow that's just brilliant! And I guess, for the purposes of the audience as well, it'd be interesting to explain how the Press Association works, what it is, because it's interesting since I've been in industry, how many people are not aware a lot of people do know, but just to I don't know if you want me to break it down it is the national news agency of the UK.
Katie Wright (04:54)
Yes, the UK's national news agency. Yeah, but it is it's very different to a Fashion and Beauty Editor that works and magazine, and so with PA, we've got news wire, we've got PA Images is a huge photography agency. And then Features is my team or the Lifestyle team, and it's split into two parts; so there's the Features wire, which goes out to regional papers around the UK, of which there's 80 papers that subscribe and then they take our features and our content as they wish to each week. So some things you'll pretty much know are going to go into onto the same pages, or some things are taken on an ad hoc basis. And then on the other side we have a digital service, which was launched a couple of years ago, and that has completely different customers to the wire, and it's people like Irish Examiner, RTÉ, Talk Talk, the Lifestyle section of their website. And so every day, as a number of digital features go out: we get all our ideas and we pitch every day for those, so it's completely fresh; it's reacting to what's going on in the media with celebrities. And that's across both sections; Digital, and the wire. both have five different topics: Fashion and Beauty (obviously that's mine), Travel, Food & Drink, Health & Well-Being and then Life.
Nick Osborn
Brilliant. Yeah. Excellent. And effectively, I mean, even though you mentioned the regionals there, all the national press feed into it as well, don't they? So they take content from you also?
Katie Wright (06:32)
Yes, well, not so much for Features, although there is a little bit of crossover, but that tends to be more like the showbiz team, and the News like, all the big broadsheets, national papers are our customers of those different wires.
Nick Osborn
Yes. Okay. Brilliant. That's good. And I just wanted to point out because it is very different, as you say, from being a Fashion Editor of a magazine, because I guess you don't necessarily have an agenda for any particular outlets or, or how does it work with you? I just want to get to the nitty gritty of your daily life, I guess how it works, how its structured etc...
Katie Wright (07:14)
My days are split between the digital and the print focus. So first thing in the morning, I go online, and I'm looking for story ideas, and then I send those over, so pitch those to my Digital Editor, and then I get commissioned, so I tend to do one digital feature per day, usually Fashion and Beauty, but there's crossover as well. So like today, I'm doing something about Beyonce and the Ivy Park collection....
Nick Osborn: Oh, wow!
Katie Wright (07:42)
...because that's trending. I did about Anne Hathaway's on screen outfits, because they've got the new film of The Witches. We do a lot of expert led features for that kind of thing. I did another one on preventing loneliness during pregnancy, because obviously, in the pandemic, it's very different, so that's just a snapshot of the type of features I might be working on in a week. And then once I filed that, and they go out pretty much straightaway; they get subbed, and they go out on the same day, because it is very reactive, and that's why we call them Reactive Features. And then I'll be working on my print features; so each week I do a main Fashion column, Beauty column, and then we have what are called Topicals. So it's one Fashion and one Beauty which go just to the wire, and then for print and then the Topicals go for wire and digital as well. So across the two
Nick Osborn
Oh brilliant, ok! So you're tasked with that that amount of features for the week, and then that goes out to all of the press to then cover, and presumably regionals probably cover practically everything you put out really?
Katie Wright (08:47)
Yes, the main Fashion and Beauty pieces in particular, they will go out to, I mean PRs see it more than I do a lot of the time up to 80 papers subscribed and it might be 20, 50,70; it's like a huge reach
Nick Osborn
And what influences what subjects you cover? You mentioned the conversation obviously trending with Beyonce, but with other subject matters. How do you choose what to write about?
Katie Wright (09:09)
Yeah, so it's quite different. The Reactives are literally reacting to what's going like that day, that week. Whereas print features tend to be like seasonal trends. So the beginning of the season, Spring / Summer and then Autumn / Winter, I'll do a trend guide, one for Beauty, one for Fashion. And then it'll be ike a list of the major catwalk trends, catwalk based, and then I'll tend to do each one of those individually for one week. So this season I've done things like leather, the color red, as a color trend, 70s, just anything that's catwalk influenced. And then mixed within that we'll have seasonal things like Mother's Day gifting roundups, obviously Christmas is huge! Just today I've filed Beauty advent calendars. In the Summer, obviously you'll do like swimwear, I'll do SPF for Beauty, it's things like that. And then in between those, as trends come up, things that you couldn't necessarily predict; maybe there's something on Instagram, everyone's using one particular eyeshadow palette, and then I'll do a piece on palettes. Some stuff will get planned weeks and weeks in advance, and then other things I'll slot in as and when they come up.
Nick Osborn
Okay. Wow, that's interesting, and it's good to understand what does influence you as well, I guess again, one of the main differences that we have with this conversation rather than with the other Editors is that the other Editors can be influenced by brands. Because to find out what the trends are, they have to see something consistently before they realise 'actually, that is a trend! That isn't just that brand trying to place their product to make me cover it. So there's a lot of influence that they can have, but I guess you don't necessarily get that, that's not something that works for you...?
Katie Wright (11:12)
I do a bit like, I get a lot of releases, and I'm often filing things away, and you will notice the same thing coming up, so what we like to do on the Beauty side, for example would be 'new ingredients in beauty', where it's been highlighted by different brands, and then once you've got enough, you can do a roundup on a certain asset or, I had a bunch of stuff this week for pumpkin beauty related to Halloween, so there is an element of that as things pop into my inbox, and I'll notice "okay, I've seen a few of those type of boots...", I've just scheduled a feature on this chunky boot trend with these huge heels, huge soles that I've seen everywhere, and I've seen some on Instagram, and then I had a press release, and I was like "ok, I'm gonna schedule that in", so it's kind of a mix of things. And sometimes, like research, for example, when you get a press release with research in it, I can sometimes base a feature on that, but we always like to move a story along. We won't just ever do a story where it's like "Here's some research, this is what it's found! It might be the research has shown, like isolation and pregnancy for this week, and then we'll get an expert to talk about ways to prevent it. So it's never it's never just purely based on one press release.
Nick Osborn
That's good. And what you're saying there as well about the colour red - I'm presuming probably that the colour red has come into the area because of Christmas, maybe and probably "just get this year out of the way - let's just think about Christmas!". I don't know whether that was the rationale?
Katie Wright (12:46)
Yeah, that's the sort of thing where, because it came from the Autumn / Winter catwalks, which obviously were in February time. But it's the sort of thing you can then peg it to Christmas, you can say like, "it's a catwalk trend, as we're coming up to Christmas - everyone likes red", so it's kind of positioning things that you saw at the start of the season, and then deciding how can I make it relevant to our readers? Yeah, okay.
Nick Osborn
Yeah, that's good, and thinking about that as well, actually, because, again, the difference between this conversation and with the other Editors is that generally, obviously dependent on their lead times, and how regular the outlets are, I guess for you, you've mentioned covering Christmas - have you done Christmas now? I guess, because it's daily, you probably still have Christmas coming up too...?
Katie Wright (13:26)
Oh, yeah. No, we only work generally for the wire three weeks in advance. So for example, I filed advent calendars to go out tomorrow, because obviously, we're not even into December yet, so it gives the regional papers, who like things to be a few weeks in advance, but not too far, so that they've got enough time, because we can't do advent calendars the end of November, because they might be three weeks ahead. So for the print side of things, it's about that far, but reactive is literally day by day.
Nick Osborn: Okay, wow, so you still got all that to come properly in the lead up to Christmas.
Katie Wright (14:02)
Yes, advent calendars are pretty much the first Christmas feature I do.
Nick Osborn
Ok, so I obviously, you've been in industry now for eight and a half years, or just over eight and a half years, there must have been a number of changes that you've experienced during that period, let alone obviously the very recent period since March with COVID. Just describe to me what those changes are and how they've changed over the course of that period...
Katie Wright (14:26)
I think the biggest change for us is definitely the launch of the digital service. So it used to be that all of my features were print, everything was in advance, everything relied on hi-res images that could go in print, whereas now it's so great to be able to be reactive. And before there were features that I just could not do, because it would be too late. So if a celebrity wore something one day, and they'd put it on Instagram - we can't use Instagram posts in print features, so now with reactives I can say "Kim Kardashian has worn this item, it's in the shops. Here's five places where you can buy it!...", whereas before, and because brands are reacting faster as well to trends, now I don't have to wait six months to be able to do those kind of features.
Nick Osborn
So why was it that you couldn't use Instagram in print? Was that just just because the speed at which things change or...?
Katie Wright (15:26)
Well, it's more to do it's not high resolution enough...
Nick Osborn: Oh, of course!
Katie Wright (15:28)
So yeah, this is this is one thing I would always say to PRs is that for print, we have to have high resolution images, it's really important. They have to be 300 DPI, generally, or 1000 pixels, or one meg, and if it's not hi-res enough, it can't go in print, because it will look pixelated on the page.
Nick Osborn
Hence, I guess, the popularity of PRShots 20 years ago was and is actually getting that content over to Editors in that format. So
Katie Wright (15:55)
Yeah, and that's why I find it so valuable, because I know everything will be hi-res.
Nick Osborn
Yeah, absolutely. So I guess you've mentioned the changes there since you've started at PA Media. What about since COVID? How have things changed since since that's all come about?
Katie Wright (16:13)
Yeah, so there's one thing which actually is not so much COVID related, but we now just have a policy of using any quotes that we use have to be exclusive. And so this is one thing where it's also really useful for PRs to know; that any expert quotes or celebrity interviews, we won't use quotes if they've been used before. So sending me even a release with great export quotes on a beauty trend or fashion trend - we have to have them exclusive, written that day for Reactive. So yeah, sometimes in the morning I'll sign a Reactive and I'll do Response Source to get quotes, but they have to be exclusive to us. And that's why also if any brands have celebrities as ambassadors, or any interview time, that's always like really useful for us, and we're always happy to hear of any celebrities.
Nick Osborn
Okay, brilliant. And I'm guessing are you working from home now? Or are you still going into the PA every now and again?
Katie Wright (17:11)
Yes, we're all working from home. The office is open, people are able to go if they want to, and there were plans to go back in but then when the new restrictions came in, it was decided that we won't be for the foreseeable future.
Nick Osborn: Wow. So how does that work for you?
Katie Wright (17:26)
So we moved from the office in Victoria to Paddington a year or so ago, and after that most of us were working from home a couple of days a week anyway. So for us there was no need to get laptops or change any technology or monitors or anything, because we were already set up for it. So I think for us it was an easier transition than for a lot of companies where you were suddenly scrambling around to get everyone set up. So it's not not been that different to us. We do catch ups every morning on Zoom, or Microsoft Teams is what we use, and we conference once a week. I mean, I'm missing my colleagues like everyone, but what can you do?
Nick Osborn
Well, that's the thing. I think the feedback I've received is that everyone misses the buzz, not just the general buzz but actually just even being able to ask incidental questions that you don't feel comfortable enough to put it over WhatsApp for a team to answer, because it's just one of those incidental things you would have normally have got some clarity on...
Katie Wright (18:24)
Yeah, when you just want to bounce an idea off someone. Yeah, most of all I miss strong Wi-Fi. I did go into the office on one day, to edit the pictures that we have to do ourselves -it took seconds as opposed to minutes with my very slow at home Wi Fi. So that's the one thing I'm really looking forward to getting back to!
Nick Osborn
Yeah, exactly. Well, that's the feedback I've had on a few occasions, when you're trying to download something, sometimes you have to wait until you know the kids have gone to bed or something. Because otherwise it's just an absolute nightmare and takes like an hour. It's crazy. So that's one of the things. So you mentioned there, and this is not to get a lovely, brilliant plug about PRShots and PressArea, but how reliant are you on PRShots? Is it there a general part of your day that you’ll look at it?
Katie Wright (19:09)
Oh yeah! For like my Fashion wire column and my topical it’s the first thing I go to! Yeah, God forbid, if PRShots closed down overnight I would be devastated! Obviously I could go to the brands, but it would just take so much longer to have to go individually and email all these people to get even just 10 images, as opposed to… Yeah I will literally go to use the search function and I will get the majority of my images from there! And then it’s only if I can’t get all of them that I’ll go up to the brands separately, or if it is a really niche trend I will then go to like a release or whatever
Nick Osborn
Brilliant! So then are there any tips that you could give as to how a PR can get your attention in order to get you to cover their story?
Katie Wright (19:55)
Yeah. I know PRs love to use the phone and you have to do your calls and call around. Honestly, most journalists are just too busy to pick up the phone. Because, especially with our setup now, from first thing in the morning I'm literally on deadline until I've filed my Reactive piece, and then after that most days of the week, I'm on deadline again. So the odds are I won't able to pick up my phone. And so the easiest thing is to just send me a nice concise email with all the salient information, and if it is of use, I will get back to you if it's immediately useful, but also I will file away things that I'm going to use in future, so it doesn't necessarily mean I can't ever use it. Yeah. But yeah, just one really good email is perfect!
Nick Osborn
Brilliant. Okay, so actually, that brings me on to what I've generally asked the Editors. Could you give me 3 pet hates and 3 pet loves that you have regarding PRs? And I guess you've mentioned the first two that's a concise I guess emails is probably a pet love, and probably a pet hate is people calling, but I won't put words in your mouth...
Katie Wright (21:02)
So yeah, emails always preferred. I don't really mind about the time when they're sent. Because, it might be useful, it might not, I would say, sooner rather than later is better. I get emails about Awareness Days the day before, or even on the day, and it's useless, because the day has been and gone, and if we were going to cover it, we would have done it the day before at the very latest. So if in doubt, send it even like a month before or weeks before is better, then I know it's coming up, and then you can send a reminder that week. And also the amount of emails I've seen where they mention an Awareness Day, and they don't put the date!? Which I just find... If I have to then Google to find when it is, that could be a few seconds I don't have that day, that's gonna make the difference of whether or not I even read the rest of the email. So yeah, so do that. And also, make sure, I know it's not always possible to contact the right Editor. The one thing that stands in my mind is getting weird emails about pets, like pet foods. There's a lot of animal related stuff, and that's just not my topic at all. So there is a bit of crossover, but generally if it's not Fashion or Beauty, it's pretty much not me. And like pets!? We do animal stuff related to travel because it does really well,. but please no more pet releases. Literally a pet hate! And the other thing is, one hi-res image is good if it's one product where you're highlighting something like "here are these boots that are selling out", but too many hi-res just huge emails do clog up, so send low-res and then I can always request hi-res later. Or send a link to Dropbox is great. WeTransfers are good, but they expire. And many times I will come back to an email, I want those images and the WeTransfer is gone, and so sometimes I will just do something else that's readily available. So I would say Dropbox is great, because then it doesn't expire.
Nick Osborn: Yeah, or PRShots, obviously...
Katie Wright: Yes, obviously!
Nick Osborn
But that's interesting. And actually, when you talk about the emails as well, about putting lots of hi-res, we've had a number of people I think was Paula Moore, from Future Publishing.
Katie Wright: I know Paula Moore
Nick Osborn
Yeah, she's brilliant! We had an interview with both her and Julie Player and it was just brilliant. And I was I was gutted because they're two, really well respected Editors in the industry, and we're going to do it at the same time. I thought "we've missed the trick here" but actually both of them together was just brilliant anyway. But what she mentioned as well, send images, but actually she wants the images to be in the main body of the email as well, because then she can therefore see it and not have to do as much work before downloading it, etc.
Katie Wright 23:57
Yes that's true! If you can embed low-res within it, then I'll see straight away, as opposed to having to go through and click on 10 different icons that are all attachments, it's true!
Nick Osborn
Yeah. Okay. And another thing actually, you mentioned Awareness Days, and obviously it's pointless sending the release on the same day or leaving the actual date out - I remember my days at PR Newswire, where their suggestion was, if you send something out a week before the day or two weeks, or even like a month before on the day, there would be like four weeks before, for example, does that matter? Or is it as long as it's before the awareness day for you?
Katie Wright (24:34)
Yeah. Honestly, the sooner the better. Because often if I am coming out Wednesday, I don't know if other journalists have said this, but I use my emails to search like Google. I will search if I'm doing like a pumpkin beauty feature, I'll just put the word "pumpkin" into my email search and see and there could be, it could be going back months or sometimes years if it's a roundup of existing products, or if it's a trend on loungewear; I did loungewear this week, and so I just put loungewear into my emails. So make sure it's in the subject line so that it makes it much more easily searchable for us.
Nick Osborn
Yeah. Okay. And I'm guessing you're doing loungewear because obviously there's a bit more lockdown again.
Katie Wright 25:15
Yeah! It used to be a niche thing, loungewear, and now obviously, it's literally everyone's daily uniform. So
Nick Osborn
yeah, well, that's what Julie Player was saying during an interview as well, during COVID, because a lot of the PRS were put on furlough as well. She ended up having to do her own stuff, actually having her own loungewear in her own house. Did you experience that during COVID? Was there a lot less content for you to cover? And was there a concern, "actually, how am I gonna cover this...?"
Katie Wright (25:46)
You know what, I think the concern will be, in some ways next season, because Fashion Week happened as normal in February, whereas in September, and in the summer there won't be as many images, and there won't be as many catwalk trends. So I think there's still a bit of a lag, so at the moment I'm just working through all of those trends. But at the same time we have to be more reactive and look at Lifestyle trends and how people are reacting themselves to the pandemic and what they're wearing. So you're getting kind of these micro trends coming out of it. And we've done a lot, especially with our Reactives, anything that's pandemic related. Lots of things about like, we do a lot of things like 'Emotional stages of...', so 'Emotional stages of going back into lockdown' and 'Emotional stages of going back to the office', and like 'Signs that you're not ready to go back to the office...', things like that, that are very topical, that everyone's kind of thinking about, do really well.
Nick Osborn
Yeah, and I guess you can draw on your Psychology Bachelor's Degree to a certain degree, I'll guess that's probably gives you some little bit of "Oh yeah, it really was useful!"
Katie Wright
Yeah, you know, sometimes I wish we did more psychology type features, like we kind of just thread into a little bit.
Nick Osborn
So actually, just talking about that - what did you want to do? Did you want to become a psychologist? Was that the dream? And then you...?
Katie Wright 27:03
No, and I didn't really know. I remember that the careers advisor at school said "do something you like at University", and I liked psychology, it was probably my favorite subject at A level, so I was like "Ok, I'll just do that", just to get a degree. I really had no idea. I kind of wish someone had said "think about what you want to do!". So no, I really had no idea about journalism until much later, through blogging and fashion. I remember I used to just look at all the catwalk images on Style.com and became quite obsessive about doing it every season. And I found myself writing reviews in my head, and that was the first thing was like "Oh, I really like the way that they write and take something that's so visual and describe it in words" was what really kind of appealed.
Nick Osborn
Yeah, yeah. Okay, brilliant. Well, that's, you know, exactly. It's interesting. But I mean, again, actually coming back with your experience, it will be something I guess you can use for the, for the future. Anyway. So that's always good. So anyway, just understanding - do you actually have a team? You said you report to the main Editor, - do you have anybody below you, or on the side of you that that helps with your side of things?
Katie Wright 28:10
Yeah, it's quite siloed in a way - there are Editors for each of our five topics. And then we have a couple of digital writers who work across them all, and Pru, Prudence Wade, she actually does one fashion or beauty column each month. When I was on sabbatical she was covering my role, so there's a bit of crossover there and she'll do quite a lot of fashion but Reactives as well, so that's really great - we chat a lot about features, but apart from that, we all have our individual topics that we work on.
Nick Osborn
How often do you cover things that are really of interest to you? I guess there's got to be some level of interest from you...?
Katie Wright (28:49)
Yeah, it's definitely my favourite thing to write about of all the topics. I do some travel we used to do travel trips, that was always really enjoyable, they're really nice features to write because it's most like creative writing, when you're describing a place and that's great. But no, I have favourite topics within it, so I love writing about the catwalk trend pieces at the beginning of the season, and I love writing about fragrance for Beauty, that's just one of the particular things that I really enjoy, but everything, there's never a topic where I'm like, "Oh god, do I have to write about this?" I genuinely really enjoy my job!
Nick Osborn
That's brilliant. That's lovely. I love that! And I'm guessing with the changes of everything's going around I don't know whether it works necessarily the same at PA Media, but do you get schmoozed? Or are there perks that you can get? Obviously, I guess with Travel you have to have the hotels provided for you because there's no point in your paying etc. What's what's the best way for brands now to schmooze you considering obviously, there's a lot of stuff which is taken out of their control, which they can't now do!?
Katie Wright (30:00)
Yeah, like, I used to do lots of breakfast meetings, which was like a really good way, at the beginning of the day, not even in my work time, or just go, especially with beauty products they'll tell me about the new ranges or fashion bringing an iPad with a lookbook and talk me through what's going on, or tell me about celebrity opportunities, interview opportunities. So yeah it's one of the things I miss, it is really nice, having friendly relationships with PRs and so now I'm doing a few Zoom catch ups, which is nice, I'm doing a lunch one tomorrow with the PR, and there are quite a lot of beauty events, and things like that, there'll be doing like a yoga class online. But it's one of those things that's unfortunate, because I have my Reactive deadline in the morning so it's difficult. Often they're either in the morning or in the afternoon when I have my deadlines, so I find it harder to be able to go to. I know obviously they're scheduling it so that's not outside of work time, but it was actually a lot easier for me when I can go to evening events, like breakfast or evening events, because I could get them done, get my all my deadlines done, get my work done, and then it worked around that. So it's one of those things. I can schedule in Zooms every now and again, but around deadlines.
Nick Osborn
And do you have a daily deadline? Even though it's not daily? I guess it's monthly, or weekly?
Katie Wright (31:22)
Yeah, so for Reactives; it's just as soon as possible. So some you'll just bash out in a couple of hours, other ones I have to wait for expert comments to come in, so then you will file them in the afternoon, and then I have my Fashion deadline on Wednesday, Beauty on Thursday, and then my topicals at the end of the week. So generally, and I imagine PRs want to know, like, when's the best time to contact me: - Monday and Tuesday afternoons are when I don't have my print deadlines. So I'll be much more likely to get get through all my emails at the end of Monday and Tuesday than I would on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, when I've been filing.
Nick Osborn
Okay, brilliant. And I mean, you talked about the digital experiences there, I guess, which a lot of PRs have to provide now, in order to get you in front of Press Days. How are you finding those? Are there any that stood out that you kind of think actually, that was a really good one?
Katie Wright (32:17)
There was a press day yesterday that Trace Publicity, they did their Spring / Summer press day, and instead of having scheduled Zoom sessions, they just hosted everything on a website, and they had a login, and then you just went went in and looked at whatever videos you wanted to, and that was really useful, because then you could just do it anytime you wanted. They just had it hosted for two full days and then after I logged in, they sent an automatic follow up email with links to all the look books, and a summary of all the brands, and that was really useful, because there are times when I'll sign up to a Zoom, and it'll get to the day and something's cropped up, and I just can't make it, or it's just stressful, I'll be on it, but then I still have to be filing and then I'm not really concentrating. So it's one of the things that when you were there in person at an event it was great, because you were just doing that, you would never have your laptop filing a feature at the same time, but that kind of just ends up happening with Zoom.
Nick Osborn
Yeah, yeah, of course, well that's, that's just the nature of the day and you're bombarded with stuff all the time, so it's gonna take you out. So I guess the trick there, if you're doing a Zoom is to provide a recording for those that weren't able to attend!?
Katie Wright 33:33
Yes, that's hugely useful. If it has to be at a certain time, have a recording so that people can go to it later!
Nick Osborn
Are there any PR attempts or tricks that have really stood out in your mind? Where you just thought "actually, that was amazing. I'm definitely covering that because of the way that they did this", are there any kind of spring to mind?
Katie Wright (33:57)
The main thing for us is if you can offer a celebrity interview with exclusive quotes, or exclusive quotes in general, then that's the number one thing that yes, we will cover this. And in fact, when we get a celebrity interview, we tend to make two pieces out of it. Because it might be linked to one thing, so for example, I got offered one of the Strictly dancers today, and it's related to a baby food thing. It was a parenting thing. And I have gone back and asked "Can I do a beauty spin off piece as well?", because they'll, they'll get a credit on it, and we get two pieces of content out of it. So that's the number one thing that if there's a celebrity connected to it, and they have to be, the celebrities tend Strictly as a very good kind of touch point, and a lot of sort of BBC type celebrities, you know what I mean? Like they quite mainstream, the Wire audience because it tends to be older, you can't do too many bloggers and YouTube stars, because they won't tend to know who they are, unless they are some of you know, the huge like, Zoella or somebody who's kind of broken through. But yeah for the most part, if they've been on Strictly that, we will definitely interview them
Nick Osborn: And how does that interview take place? Do you actually speak with them?
Katie Wright 35:15
Yeah, I mean, in the olden, "olden days?" haha - pre pandemic times, it would be going to a junket, or going to actually interview people in person, but a lot of it is done over the phone, and like I just did The Hairy Bikers yesterday. Yeah, so I also do food features, like once a month, so yeah, everything's Zoom or phone at the moment
Nick Osborn: And are there are any interviews that you've had where you're just like, "Oh, my God. Starstruck! This is amazing. Can't believe it!"
Katie Wright (35:42)
Oh, yeah, so I did Kylie Minogue a couple of years ago for Specsavers, and that was amazing, because some, especially when it's someone's so famous, and I've loved her since I was like, literally five years old, and sometimes it's very managed, there's loads of PRs and publicists, but with that, it was just me and her sat in like, the hotel suite having a chat and I was very starstruck.
Nick Osborn: Oh wow so you were actually there in person? I thought it was just over the phone! That's awesome!
Katie Wright (36:11): Yeah, I actually got to meet her. Got a photo and everything, it was amazing!
Nick Osborn: Selfies, put straight on Instagram. "Hi, guys, my new best friend"!
Katie Wright: Yeah! Haha
Nick Osborn: Is there anything? So what are you working on at the moment? Is there anything that any of the, our clients or audience could actually provide to you that you're looking for currently, at the moment?
Katie Wright 36:29
Yeah, so we're very much getting into Christmas now. So I'm going to be doing Christmas Beauty gifting, like female focused, I'll be doing grooming gifts. I'm going to be doing fashion gifting, which will be I think, will be a round up of men's and women's, and in particular, I do think it's one of the things I should do more of is menswear, because it's just most Fashion Week, the men's week is focused on women's wear, and so we tend to do those as the main trends, but men's features..., I did one on suit mistakes that people make, and I had a couple of experts talking about getting the sizing wrong, or lengths or buttons and all kinds of things. So if people can offer kind of interesting angles like that, that's really good. And then the red colour trend fashion trend that I mentioned, that's coming up. And also gold, which I'm doing for Christmas. It's a bit weird, because now, because our features don't have to be confirmed until the schedule goes out the week before, so we do chop and change a little bit, and this time of year, I would normally be doing that party season makeup, desk to dance floor type features, but because all the Christmas parties are not happening, I think we are going to have to work around a bit. So yeah, I'll just kind of have to see nearer the time, but I think it will be nice to do some bright and sparkly features and say like, "even if you're just with your family at home, it's nice to get dressed up". So yeah, so kind of party and bit of glitzy fashion.
Nick Osborn
One of the Editors I was speaking with, who I've not interviewed yet, but especially for the press kind of content, what they've realised it's actually with the images; they do really like the COVID restrictions to be observed within the images, obviously, not necessarily with the masks, etc, but I'm thinking in the case of parties, for example, even the distancing, is that something that you're conscious of as well?
Katie Wright (38:32)
You know, I hadn't even thought of that! But I think it wouldn't really be, because I think people are aware that photos were taken pre pandemic. So I might not use, we use like iStock as well, and maybe I just wouldn't use one with a massive group of 20 people at a party!
Nick Osborn: all hugging each other “look this is amazing!”
Katie Wright (38:55)
Yeah, but actually one thing that I'd like to point out is that all of my print features have to have model shots, like nice lifestyle shots as well as cut outs. We do want a mix of both, but every so often I'll struggle with something like jewelry or sunglasses, because it's harder to get good model shots. And I have notice some brands, I think probably because of the pandemic, don't have as many nice model shots, Lifestyle shots. So sometimes that will decide whether or not I feature something, because if there's something else with really good model shots, then we'll go with that instead!
Nick Osborn
OK, yeah, that feedback has been echoed again by Paula and Julie on a number of occasions as well, but actually with the model shots, we noticed that during the first lockdown that there were so many more in situ model shots that were being downloaded. I guess because people couldn’t shoot. But then also, obviously, the feedback that we got from a lot of Editors was that needed those shots, but again because the PR's were furloughed they couldn't provide it as well.
Katie Wright (40:00)
Yeah it's difficult. I mean, I think it has been, it's not as bad as it was at the very beginning of lockdown!
Nick Osborn
No, exactly! So you mentioned gold there as well – is that the new colour or is that always coming in for Christmas? Because it does seem that red and gold is like a big thing.
Katie Wright (40:13)
Yeah, there's certain things like metallics that are always going to be around on the Autumn Winter catwalks one way or another, because designers are always conscious of it coming up to the party season, but it seems like gold was more than silver or rose gold or anything else. Yeah, so that's a big catwalk trend.
Nick Osborn
OK, excellent and again talking about trends, considering the circumstances either in the media industry or in fashion, or both. What trends do you see that that will be continuing moving forward?
Katie Wright (40:43)
Yeah, I think loungewear is going to continue to be massive. There were even rumours I saw in a release about a loungewear shortage because people were stocking up. And I think there are going to be trends within loungewear, so instead of everything being quite beige, as it has been for a while, a kind of grey; I think it's going to become a bit more diverse. And also the Zoom dressing from the waist up - I did a piece on the big collar trend, because there's loads of collars and I think people do want anything that's a bit interesting around the neckline.
Nick Osborn
Oh wow! So Harry Hill’s probably completely on trend at the moment! No, you're right because the amount of pieces I saw, exactly - you could look smart or anything, but everyone wears tracksuit bottoms now and it's just right.
Katie Wright (41:32)
Yeah, even Anna Wintour is wearing tracksuit bottoms - it's OK, guys you’re allowed!
Nick Osborn
I mean I do still love my skinny jeans, and my son tells me "you’re well out of date Dad!”, but you know, at the end of the day I still don't want to sit around the house in them anyway because it's so much more comfortable in tracksuit bottoms
Katie Wright (41:45)
Yeah, you know, I actually did a piece on whether skinny jeans would die because of the pandemic, because the sales of like mom jeans and baggy jeans are up, but when I asked retailers and when you talk to them skinny jeans still sell really well.
Nick Osborn: Oh really?
Katie Wright: They still outsell other styles.
Nick Osborn
That's awesome so I can go straight back to my Son and tell him "I'm still on trend, it's just not confident with your 15 year old mates”, that's it obviously yeah. Well, brilliant, listen thank you Katie - I really appreciate that!
Katie Wright: Thanks for having me.
Nick Osborn: It's been, it's been brilliant. Yeah no thank you. And if you need anything just let just let us know.
Katie Wright: I will holler.
Nick Osborn: But yeah, thank you very much your time and all the best and Merry Christmas and all that stuff.
Katie Wright: Oh yeah, thank you. Take care.
Nick Osborn: Take care bye