In the hot seat:
Lulu Grimes: Managing Editor at BBC Good Food
Lulu’s Focus:
- Responsible for and oversees all content. Covers family travel too
- Lulu likes breakfast meetings, the best time to meet. Doesn’t like phone calls
- Lulu covers family travel; everything has to be reviewed
- She prefers to travel on her own due to the fact group trips are not a true representation of what a place is like
- Her annoyances are: being pitched something that’s been covered in the previous issue, make sure you know what they write about
BBC Good Food
- BBC Good Food don’t feature or publish anything unless it has been tasted. Samples needed.
- 80 recipes are tested every month
- They don’t tend to print recipes that haven’t been commissioned
- BBC Good Food has a podcast
- Hosted by Tom Kerridge and Rosie Birkett
- If sending things (food and ingredients) to the office, ensure that all relevant paperwork accompanies it, need to know who it’s from and what is the point they’re being alerted to.
- Clearly think about packaging, from a sustainability point of view and a practical point in terms of space
- Clearly mark on the external packaging if it needs to be opened upon receipt and if it needs to be in the fridge
- There is one content team – most print goes online
- New products won’t go online unless there is a reason
- There is a four-month lead time for print, themes for 2020 are being set already
- Themes include: meal prepping, sustainability (especially packaging), meals for 1, family meals
- January and June have a health focus. October, November and December are all big issues and very popular
- In the magazine:
- 3 months lead time
- 4 travel features, a restaurant feature – will focus on a particular cuisine or country associated with this and is very much led by a recipe. Ski edition once a year
- Weekly news compiled by Anna Lawson
- column called ‘What We’re Eating’ – new food trends
- Interview with a chef. Barney Desmazery puts this together and he wants to interview people with something different to say. Also gets Bartenders to give guides
- Victoria Moore = all things wine related
- The readers of BBC Good Food are averagely aged 45 although it is very much a generational mag
- As it is the BBC they outsource opinion
Pitching Top Tips:
- Pitching: short and succinct wins. Make a good case. A picture, why it’s good and who is it for. Imagine how the end user might want to use somethingoth parties need to be clear on what the coverage will be generated
- Keep ‘if you want a sample’ at the top of the email
- Most people come in and read emails straight away so best time to pitch, as by the middle of the day emails get lost
- One of the first things Lulu looks at in a pitch is price as this is important for the end reader
- Research has shown for Travel, people want all-inclusive so they know what they are spending before
- If you are pitching hotels, always put the lowest price
- Press Releases: short important info at the top as that is what’s looked at first
- Make sure subject line is about what’s being written
- Travel: interested in how expensive it is / prices / hotel room rates
- Don’t be embarrassed to chase journalists – they get distracted at BBC Good food so ok to see if still interested
