Chart your career from the start until now.

I started my career off at IPC Media in production, initially in the outworking team working with 3rd party suppliers for wrapping/bagging magazines and including things like free gifts, then moved into magazine production including scheduling and buying print and paper across many of IPC’s iconic titles such as NME, Nuts and Ideal Home. I then went to News International where I did a similar role across their newspaper and magazine portfolio, before getting approached by Zest Media, a small publisher in North London where I took the role as Head of Production – bringing together print and paper buying, distribution and leading a design team. Following this I approached Readly who were relatively new in the UK to be their Operations Manager; it sounded like an interesting role and business and 4 years on, I am now Head of Content across our English speaking markets and the Nordics, working with publishers to bring their magazines to an engaged, digital audience and boosting readership and revenues.

What made you want to branch out into the media sector?

My dad was in publishing for 40+ years, as was my grandad so you could say it’s in the genes! I also studied film, TV and radio production so it seemed a natural fit. I’m passionate about ensuring we have access to verified, trusted journalism so protecting the industry and also the readers from ‘fake news’ is something that matters to me. It’s great to combine my interests with my job!

Why is the ‘digital magazine revolution’ important to you?

As the world becomes more and more digital, we need to keep ahead of it and give the consumer content in a form that fits their ever-changing lifestyle, whether that be reading on a tablet, mobile or print. Print goes hand in hand with digital. Digital is a way of developing the industry and bringing new insights, wider readership and potentially more revenues to publishers.

The publishing industry is full of amazing trustworthy information, whether it is food, sport, tech, entertainment, it is essential that we work together to keep offering this quality and reputable content to readers.

Readly recently released their 2021 Reading Trends report. What findings surprised you the most? What findings surprised you the least?

I was surprised at how quickly our appetite for travel has bounced back with it being our fifth most read category globally. As we start to emerge from the pandemic and behaviours evolve, people are clearly keen to research and plan their getaways and fulfill travel dreams that may have been on hold. The cars and motoring category was also our fourth largest growth category.

As predicted and a continued trend from last year, fitness, home & garden renovation and TV and cinema were all in the top five growth categories as we are still very much focussed on making our homes a safe and beautiful place for stay at home activities. The number of bookmarked pages in magazines increased by 46% during the year, and most of these were cooking recipes, in particular comfort food such as one-pots and pans, a comforting, easy dish to end a day working from home.

One of the features of Readly is the access to back issues. Why do you think readers wish to revisit old issues of their favourite titles?

Yes and indeed in the UK, 22% of all titles read by UK users are back issues. Topics that are ever-green are particularly popular such as food recipes, photography and gardening.

Some of our most read issues are back issues – as long as the content is still relevant, people love to delve into it and that is the beauty of Readly, subscribers can combine back issue reading with the latest news, celebrity, finance and lifestyle issues.

Do you think in the future we will read magazines exclusively on tablets/smartphones?

No, there will always be a place for print. The move towards digital has been accelerated by covid but people will always want to read something heavy and glossy on their coffee table too. We want to support print and work alongside publishers to deliver their content to a digital audience.

There has been a huge push towards mobile in recent years and we are always assessing and adapting our app to offer the best experience for subscribers.

What’s on your radar?

I’ve found it interesting to see the publishers move away from newsstands and towards a subscription-based model in recent times and the global differences.

Across the markets: the US is all about subscriptions and not newsstand, the UK is starting to move towards this model and in Germany it’s still all about newsstands. The industry is certainly moving towards a subscription based model which has been accelerated by the pandemic and less access points for newsstands.

It’s also been interesting to see how the big tech giants (Apple, Amazon, Google) have tried to enter the market over the last few years and what we will see next.

What magazine do you stockpile?

At the moment, it’s all about food, home and gardening! I moved house last year so I am focussing on decoration and getting the garden ready for spring. I also read lots of food titles as I search for quick and easy recipes for the family.