What made you want to work in the publishing industry?

It was a happy accident. I set my sights on PR and marketing and I did that at ASOS for two years and I came to realise that I wanted to be on the other side of the industry and be a journalist. It made more sense because I loved writing.

Chart your career from the start to where you are now.

I stayed at ASOS for five years. Two in the PR department and then three in their editorial department. It was a really interesting time because they were pretty much the first retailer to pioneer this editorialization of retail and content. I launched their ASOS Today Blog, which was daily shopping news and celebrity gossip. Then I went to Stylist where I was their first Digital Editor for a year. I went travelling for six months and went freelance, working for titles like the Mirror and MSN. I moved abroad and lived in Portugal, continuing to freelance for titles back in the UK and that is when I started to work for TI Media. I came in on a maternity contract and they’ve just kept me on. I moved through a number of titles and was the Digital Content Director where I looked after eight different digital brands. I started working on The Caribou in the summer as editor.

What has been the highlight of your career so far?

There has been plenty that I am proud of, like launching The Caribou and Homes&Gardens.com. But the role that I have got the most out of was when I was in Portugal I was editor of a small local community magazine called Tomorrow magazine. The edition I was editor of had a circulation of 5,000 copies a month which looked at local news, events, health, business, food and drink. The brilliant thing about working on it was that I was living amongst the audience, talking to them and I got to see how much the magazine meant to them and how much they engaged with it.

How did you identify that The Caribou audience would be an ABC1 40+ female audience ?

We have an audience insight team who have done a lot of research around the travel market. They have also done a lot of research around the existing audience we have at TI Media across the various different brands within the business. The heart of The Caribou is powered by our heritage brands. It pulls in travel content across our travel portfolio, from Woman&Home, Marie Claire and other specialist brands like Cycling Weekly and Golf Monthly. The key to The Caribou is around passion point travel.

What has been the most challenging thing about building The Caribou brand?

The first thing that people have asked is, why The Caribou? What does the name mean? So it has been an education for us around why we called it that. The thinking behind that was because a caribou is a north American migrating reindeer that travels thousands of kilometres every year, much like our audience. So, it has been important for us to figure out exactly what The Caribou is and who it is for. But really, now is when the real hard work starts.

Do you have lots of press trips planned for The Caribou?

That is the question that people always ask. There will be travelling involved because we think it’s important that as a business, everything we do is authoritative and effective. We have to make sure that the travel content is written based on someone having experienced the place.

What does a typical day involve at The Caribou?

The first thing I do every morning is check the stats from the day before. One of the reasons I love working with digital content is that we have so much data available. It’s so useful to help understand who your reader is, what has performed well on social and what has performed well on the website. On the back of that you may have to jump onto something quickly. Because it’s a new brand, it feels like a start-up mentality and that we could be doing anything at any point.

How do you handle your deadlines?

I find it useful to break tasks down into smaller chunks, which gives you the ability to tick things off. When I am really stressed, I block my day out and allocate times for different projects. Working in digital content, it is so fast paced, and things change all the time so it’s a lot to juggle. Asking my senior for help prioritising is also important.

What would people be surprised to know about your job?

How much time I spend looking at data, graphs and google analytics. Data is power in this side of the industry.

What is the last photo on your phone?

A picture I took last night of my passport because I need to check-in for my flight to Amsterdam. I won’t send you that because I’m not sure I want my identity stolen!

What would be in your Room 101?

Misogynistic pick-up artists. I read a great piece from the Evening Standard magazine about the industry, which was jaw-dropping.

Whose phone number do you wish you had?

An American singer songwriter called Jewel. I grew up listening to her music. Recently she released a book which talks about her personal life and struggles that she faced, and it included so many life truths. I would like her on my speed dial as a personal therapist.

Introvert or Extrovert?

Ambivert

Optimist or Pessimist?

I am training myself to be more of an optimist.

Film or TV?

Film and preferably watched on the big screen in the cinema.

What magazine would be your long train journey read?

Evening Standard Magazine and there are a couple of well being magazines which I really like. One is called Flow magazine and the other is called Breathe.

Visit The Caribou website here: https://www.thecaribou.com/