In the hot seat:
Kate Palmer: Senior Money Reporter at The Times and The Sunday Times
Kate’s week:
- The week is geared up to deliver both Saturday and Sunday Money pages.
- Currently the team is not filing stories for the digital offering at 9am; 12pm and 5pm.
- Monday Money Team meeting c. 11am/11.30am. Discuss ideas.
- Monday and Tuesday best days for meetings.
- Breakfast / coffee best near Times HQ around London Bridge.
- Friday afternoon’s after 3pm also a good time to meet if filed stories
- Does 2-3 per week. Does book 3-4 weeks in advance.
- Wednesday deadline – copy for the lead stories filed for both weekend editions
- Friday c. 3pm: Saturday edition filed. 6pm Sunday edition filed.
Top Tips:
- Kate is particularly interested in:
- Pensions equality campaign that runs in The Sunday Times
- Inheritance / disputes over wills and probate
- Issues affecting young adults: buying a house; engaging with their finances etc
- Interested in tech and startups focussed on disruption/ banking new features
- Pitching tips
- Gets c. 100 emails a day (budget day x3. Reacting very quickly. Need help)
- If a press release being distributed far and wide – then no calls. Just email in
- Do customise to why relevant for Times/ST
- Subject line: don’t type in UPPER CASE!
- Please don’t call in to ask if you received the press release
- If exclusive to Times/ST – then happy to chat about the story and timings
- Do flag if release is embargoed for either Saturday or Sunday editions
- Do highlight new slants or angles of stories/topics for future thought / stories
- Team members can be asked to file stories for the Newsdesk with limited warning
- Often everything put on hold re Money editions and need to file by 4pm
- Money team are generalists and can turn their hand to any subject.
- Having said that:
- James Coney writes his Sunday column
- Jessie Hewitson writes her Saturday column ‘Home Economics’
- Mark Atherton interested in investments / Saturday Column ‘Activist Investor’
- David Byers focussed on his Saturday Column ‘Troubleshooter’
- Ali Hussain interested in investments, energy market, savings, fraud / scams
- Katherine Denham recently joined. Early days
- Kenza Byran joined from the foreign desk and interested in short term credit and consumer issues
- Fame & Fortune column often produced by freelancers
- Case Studies are so important. Finding someone who is comfortable speaking to the media and having a photo published is challenging. But of real value.
