INDUSTRY PROFILES

I often joke that I’ve spent my career writing about cushions, as opposed to being an ambulance-chasing news reporter. Of course that’s not true, but I have always specialised in lifestyle content and love magazines. After journalism school I started out at a long-defunct teenage girls’ magazine, before working at Trends. I then became a copywriter at Sky Television, before becoming deputy editor of HOME and Your Home & Garden magazines. I had a couple of children and freelanced for a few years before becoming NZ Herald’s real estate editor and editing the Herald on Sunday’s lifestyle magazine. Now as lifestyle director on Woman’s Day and NZ Woman’s Weekly, I work with the editors, colleagues and contributors to put together the food, fashion, beauty, travel, health and wellbeing features and columns. I also write healthy living and interiors content for Woman’s Day. My role as travel editor across Bauer is brand new, but I will be working with magazine editors to develop travel content on our print and digital platforms, so watch this space.

Speaking as lifestyle director, we like specialised pitches where it’s obvious the PR knows our magazines and has thought about an appropriate angle. Giving us enough lead-time is always a given. We plan ahead, so contacting us about Valentine’s Day content six days ahead of the big day doesn’t really work as our Valentine’s Day issue is already on the news-stand. If you’re sending a Dropbox of product images, please make sure the images are high-res and are named with prices. Good imagery is crucial. And of course, if something has a celebrity angle, we want to know about it! As travel editor, pitches should have realistic expectations on ROIs. I know it goes both ways, but I had a pitch one day where the PR emailed me and said they wanted a feature story, digital coverage (including video) and social. When I looked it up, the experience they were pitching has a value of $200. I turned that one down.

I am not great on the phone, unless it’s urgent. Even my mother emails me. My job has so many moving parts so email is always best so I can keep track of everything. Emails at any time are fine. I do try and get back to PRs as soon as possible, although sometimes things slip through the cracks. Feel free to email me a reminder if you haven’t heard back!

A positive one.

It’s always nice to be invited, but I have a family so can’t attend a lot of after-hours events.

What’s not to love about travel, food and lipstick? But seriously, what we do can make a difference in our readers’ lives. My first taste of this was as a newly minted journalist. I wrote a story about mature students and heard it inspired a woman with no qualifications to train for a new career. I felt really moved at the time and now that I am mature myself I see how gutsy she was.

I would be a freelance writer, drinking cups of tea and talking to the cat.

Email:
Lifestyle - plewis@bauermedia.co.nz
Travel - travel@bauermedia.co.nz
Instagram: 
Lifestyle - @pennylewisnz
Travel - @traveltolovenz