How did you get where you are today?
I started as a staff writer 10 years ago. In special interest magazinest’s it’s a case of working your way up through the ranks. While I was freelancing at Cycling Weekly, the deputy editor’s position came up.
What are your main tasks?
Commissioning, flat planning, making sure the elements are there and overseeing the process from beginning to end. Approving words and pictures before they go to print. Carrying out proofs and corrections, and making sure the stories are on the website.
What are the most important things to know in your job?
It’s important to know about how to make magazines. A good knowledge of the cycling world. All our writers and freelancers’ knowledge of cycling is second to none. It’s also important to support the editor in everything that he does.
How important are your contacts?
There is the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia and we have freelancers in those places as well as across Europe and the rest of the world. It is important to stay in touch with them and make sure they know what they are doing and are happy with it. For a weekly we rely a lot on freelance staff, and getting the right person for the job is all down to the contacts you have already made and knowing people to ask for new contacts.
What’s your key to success?
A good knowledge of the cycling world is important, as is being able to turn around accurate work weekly in house style. You have to be really accurate because we have to print it as it comes in most of the time.
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