In the hot seat:
Sophie Lam: Travel Editor at The i Paper
Sophie’s Focus:
- Sophie is the main contact for all travel at the i
- Covers all print, digital and commercial
- Meetings are really important to Sophie as relationship builders
- Quick coffee in the office is preferred place to meet
- Can be swayed by “urgent, hot news”
- Sophie doesn’t work on Wednesdays
- She works 4-6 weeks in advance when commissioning stories
- Email is preferred method of contact, doesn’t like phone calls
- Press trips need to be over a weekend
The i Paper:
- A DPS runs every Monday and Wednesday for travel
- Friday is the deadline for Monday pages
- 7/8 pages run at the weekend
- Daycations will be more an area of great focus for 2020 travel trends
- i readers are particularly interested in under touristed areas and Scotland and Wales are always very popular with readers
- They have a small budget so only use a small pool of freelancers
- Prefers news to come through to her as opposed to going directly to freelancers
- Family travel is ¼ of what is written about in i
- The Arts team tend to focus more on destination pieces (museums and galleries are included in this)
- Freelancers for i prefer group trips as they can get 2/3 stories from one trip
- Round ups are planned 4-6 weeks ahead but are also dependent on the weather
Top Tips:
- Likes and reads all press releases but can only give feedback to stories she will feature
- When pitching you need to grab attention quickly and have all the information needed presented quickly
- Only include images if they are relevant to what’s being pitched
- Small and low res within email are preferred
- Always include a How To Book in the factbox, readers love this
- Friday and Monday are the best days to pitch
- Finds exclusives a really big turn off!
- Recommends including expert opinions on stories as well as survey backed pitches
What The Reader Likes:
- Readers are passionate about the environment, love the UK, are price conscious
- Very high end isn’t suitable
- Readers are averse to trends. They are well travelled but like hearing about new things
- Design is not overly important to the reader however they enjoy staying in nice places
- Dog friendly stories are the most popular readers
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