Publishers Publicity Circle – June meeting – Features
Wednesday 3rd June at 11am
Matt Nixson, The Daily Express
Sadhbh O’Sullivan, The i Paper
Matt Nixson: The Daily Express
- Associate Editor at The Express. Oversees features desk and covers various desks/sections at
The Express. - What they’re after – good stories. Timely features and reads/subjects that reflect what’s
happening in the wider world. Good humour and big names also work well for them. - Matt has been group health editor across the Express so they’ve been able to find more
space for health/popular science titles. - Matt doesn’t really have time for in-person meetings with PRs now.
- The Express shares some content with The Mirror so the reach of a piece can be bigger and
be picked up later by the Mirror. There is also opportunity to get features into the regionals. - All features they do also go online.
- Matt wants more news stories on books – something that might not make a full feature but
could make a news story – do get in touch with Matt if you have a books news line. - Matt is not worried about exclusives/things going first – he is happy for The Express to go 2 nd
or 3 rd . - Matt doesn’t mind being chased – personalised email is fine. Can be short and sweet – press
release and will this work? Matt fine to be nudged but if he’s interested, he will reply. - What works well – history/nostalgia, social history, anniversary stories, crime and thriller,
Memoir is good. Literary fiction is harder to place for them.
o Debut fiction is hard – difficult to place even though Matt receives a lot. - John Coates (Sunday express) and Matt are now trying to review books every other week –
which mean that they can cover titles that won’t make a feature. - Matt is also person for op-eds
- John and Matt work closely and you can pitch both at the same time
- Cat Hopps is features editor now
- Best days for pitching – mornings are best for Matt. Most likely to miss things 3/4pm.
Sadhbh O’Sullivan: iNews - Sadhbh used to be consumer health writer and previously Refinery29 so she has a
background in health/lifestyle/women’s stories. - On the iNews features desk, they like to cover books as it allows them to cover old grounds –
grandparent, downsizing, class and education, relationships over 40s, life stories, personal
stories that make up the ways of living today for instance. - iNews’ digital output is constant – 5/6 stories a day that then go into print. iWeekend then
covers similar content but they are separate. - Always telling new stories with a different hat. Books allow the desk to re-explore topics
they’ve previously done. - iNews will try and get first interview but they are still keen to progress with a piece if they
don’t get it. - Features that dig into the questions of the book told through the first person are good. A
first-person voice would need to have authority. They’d need to sell a story based on some
kind of authority. - First-person is the strongest pitch for them. Doesn’t mean it’ll be focus of the story but
works well for them. - There’s a weekly pitch features on Tuesday lunchtime – this is where books would be
discussed so do pitch beforehand. This meeting is non-timely stuff. - Sadhbh doesn’t do consumer health – she wants more in-depth stories
- ‘The making of me’ is another series of features which will be a slot for bigger names – you
can pitch these to Sadhbh. - The team is three writers and four editors.
- Two teams cover fiction – iWeekend (Anna Bonet) and Culture desk (Gwendolyn Smith).
- They see success with selling on stories rather than selling on names.
- Sadhbh will always try and read as much of the book as possible ahead of any interviews.
- Sadhbh always likes to talk to the PR about the line that another newspaper is taking if
there’s an exclusive, they would want something distinct. Other angles for second interview - They work digitally first.
- Also likes fun/experiential features – can do digital content.
- Doesn’t like all caps in subject email.
Questions: - Lead times – early is good. Matt is commissioning health for end of June/early July – the
sooner the better. - Express needs a month notice/a few week – more likely to be able to do it. Wants to go
ahead of publication. Two months is about the earliest - iNews – 2 months as a lead time is good.
- If the story is strong enough, they don’t mind about going after publication – they aren’t
bound to pub date. - They can’t have a story that’s visually similar to another story online. They’re not as
bothered about having the same line as another publication, but they do take note of the
imagery/if something is looking visibly similar to the coverage from another newspaper on a
similar subject. - Matt – makes it much easier if the publicist has the imagery. Authors need a proper shoot
done and it’s not wasted – can’t do a big personality piece if no imagery. - Matt – images need attached jpegs of jacket and author. Can send scans of plate section and
a WeTransfer link of pics is great – just highlight the images you have available. - iNews – google drive folder works for imagery rather than WeTransfer
- Matt – wants to do more video first content. Do pitch video content/video interviews to
Matt.