In the hot seat:
Nicola Woolcock: Education Correspondent at The Times
Nicola’s focus:
- Nicola has been Education Correspondent for more than 10 years.
- Her areas of interest include: school standards, universities – the debate surrounding the value of the degree, tutoring, GCSEs/A levels, T Levels, mental health, social mobility.
- She is aware that The Times sometimes does not cover vocational subjects enough.
- She is interested in a wide range of stories but particularly new trends that would interest middle-class parents
- Nicola doesn’t work on Mondays
- She and Rosemary Bennett (education editor) divide all stories up
- Rosemary doesn’t work Fridays
- Tuesdays are a good day for Nicola to get out of the office for a story
- Coffee and lunches are hard for her as they take up a lot of the day
The Times:
- By 10am, stories are pitched to the news editor of the day. These are then reviewed in the main conference with the editor (11am).
- There are plenty of meetings / conferences during the day
- 3:30pm is the afternoon conference
- The Times works towards 4 online updates / editions every day
- 9 am, 12 noon, 5pm and midnight
- Filing for these takes place an hour before everything goes live
- Digital meetings take place twice weekly
- Thursday is a big day for education stories
- The Saturday edition features stories that have a more lifestyle feel to them / reflective pieces / stories that affect parents and their children
- The Times Education Supplement is not linked to The Times
Top Tips:
- If pitching a news story – pitch the story the day before eg early afternoon (before 3.30pm) as Nicola’s mornings are busy (10am deadline to pitch stories to the editor) or after 11.30am
- Don’t pitch after 3.30pm
- Loves case studies. What the story means to the parent and child
- Tech education pitches – need a strong education peg. Not speculative. Needs to have affected a school or the lives of children
- Prefers email to phone calls, make sure that the top line of the news story is high up so it is clear. A day later following pitching is ok to follow up
- Exclusives and embargoes should be pitched 24/48 hours before general release
- If you have an exclusive it will generate more interest – do phone to let me know it’s coming
- When pitching surveys make sure they are new and up to date
- Sample size 500 – 1,000 minimum
- Need to take the agenda forward or refresh / build on the research
- Be tuned into the education diary when pitching, ie December/January is league tables month, 11+ is sat in September, A level and GCSE results are in August etc
- International stories need a UK peg
- Keen for lists of relevant spokespeople
