Notes from PPC October meeting: Mail on Sunday
Matt Nixson
Books Editor
Matthew.Nixson@mailonsunday.co.uk
Matt looks after all of the non-fic serial across the paper and Event Mag covering news, sport, features, interviews.
1 million copies per week with a 3 million reach. 12 million unique users online. All stories go online and there is no paywall on their website.
Lead times – some things are booked as far in advance as 6-7 months but they do also have the capacity to get things out quickly.
Event mag goes to press on a Wednesday so avoid getting in touch then. The main paper goes to print on a Sat night but the books pages are signed off on a Friday night.
They pay well for serial and also for interviews where needed. Tens of thousands can be paid, there’s no minimum. They have the biggest budgets of the papers.
They accept that they can’t always run first but they won’t follow The Sunday Times or Daily Mail but there are cases where being creative can pay off.
He’s up to meet for coffees to run through highlights – pick out and pitch stories/authors that Matt can sell to his editors.
They are active on social, particularly on a Sunday.
Their perfect book would be revelatory, heart-warming , counter to the orthodoxy. He is open to lots of things and cover a huge range of topics.
The Mail on Sunday is slightly older, most likely female. They have a younger audience online. Global audience online – they can really see a story cascade.
With NDAs/embargoes it is a pet hate of Matt’s when they are broken when the MoS is meant to have exclusivity. Any help on frequent offenders of embargo breaking would be really appreciated.
Keeba Roy
Reviews Editor
Predominantly looks after the main reviews for Event Magazine.
The pages are set 10 days before publication and they aim to hit publication dates where they can. The reviews space has shrunk so it’s a lot more competitive nowadays. It’s always worth sending proofs and finished copies as everything is looked at.
The non-fiction reviews are longer. Quick note – if there are swear words in the title of a book It’s unlikely they’ll cover it!
They don’t do that much commercial fiction – they cover a mix of debuts and established authors.
Christmas and Summer round ups – covers the first and second half of the year. 12 pages total.
Prefers contact by email – can’t always reply if it’s a no. Please send proofs and finished copies but don’t really like PDFs. Only need to send one copy of the book to the books desk, no need to send a copy to everyone. Neil Armstrong looks after non-fiction, Hephzhibah – fiction, Keeba – everything.
They don’t have huge amounts of space for books but they do do book features with household names or celebrities or topical books. They’ve just done a great piece with Luke Jennings, the author of the Villanelle novels which Killing Eve was based on.
Event Magazine coverage goes online, only the lead reviews though. Online they can embed videos into book pieces.
Yes to meetings and coffees to run through highlights.
Christmas round up – due to run on the 2nd December.
Paperbacks – do do them but the space is dwindling. They occasionally review in hardback and again in paperback but more often than not she sees it as an opportunity to cover something else.
They don’t cover crime in paperback so please don’t send. They also don’t cover re-issues. And books that have been covered in either extract or interview don’t tend to be reviewed as well.
Children’s books round ups have been stopped due to space but she will still try to do one per month. She has hopes of the pagination going up again. In total there is still 7-8 pages of books coverage when all features, etc are taken into account.
NOTE! Please can you use recyclable and easy to open jiffy bags!
Jo Elvin
Editor, You Magazine
Jo has been at You magazine since March.
Honestly, she felt the magazine had got to be a little bit samey so has been trying to mix it up since joining. The challenge is to make it speak across generations – young and older. There is a female slant to their content.
Nostalgia works well for them – an E. Nesbit piece worked really well recently. Another piece on women during the WW2 blitz was also popular. These are things she couldn’t have done at Glamour. They like to bring something different to a story – e.g. Noel Fitzpatrick piece, got to see a more emotional side of him.
They don’t do serial but do look at exclusive pieces. For example they had an exclusive Jodi Picoult essay recently which did really well – she loves having the opportunity to get that calibre of author into the magazine.
Lead times – they go to print on a Weds for the following week, so 10 days in advance. Jo feels that in the past it has felt as if the editors were a little too organised in their planning whereas she would like the magazine to feel a little bit more reactive to whatever is going on.
Competitors – any other Sunday supplement.
Events – they are looking to do more and break into that arena. Do bear them in mind for bigger authors.
Kate Figes is still in situ looking after books and working with Jo.
Pitching – she’s kind of over ‘instagrammer with new book, has millions of followers…’
Lindsay Frankel
Deputy Editor, You Magazine
Lindsay joined very recently (October).
She really likes to hear author opinions on newsy topics whether it’s something they’ve wanted to comment on for a long time – politics, etc – or a composite feature where a few authors or commentators give their opinion on an issue. She feels that they have very interesting points of view which are good to hear.
Visual extracts can work well in the magazine rather than in the main paper – they did a book about the Queen’s Corgis recently which was great.
Lead times – they go to print on a Weds for the following week, so 10 days in advance. Jo feels that in the past it has felt as if the editors were a little too organised in their planning whereas she would like the magazine to feel a little bit more reactive to whatever is going on.
Competitors – any other Sunday supplement.
Slots – they still have slot style features in the magazine and will cover authors who have also been serialised.
Understands that sometimes PRs have to send blanket emails and doesn’t mind them but please try to make the subject line and content compelling!