On the hot seat:
Emily Nicolle: Tech Editor for City AM
Emily Nicolle
- Works Sunday through to Thursday. 4pm to 1am shift.
- Sunday for Monday stories always helpful, as Sunday is slow for news.
- Embargoes are good (48 hours notice ideal) as it allows for planning ahead and lets newsdesk know if they have stories.
- Email is 100% best. Rarely uses phone to receive pitches
- Receives about 200 emails a day. Won’t reply to them all. Do resend / follow up with email if not heard back. Thereafter, don’t follow up.
- Subject key and then 3-4 key bullet points is best. Press release below this.
- If approaching, cc in colleagues and send 1 email. Not one to each of them.
- Interested in meetings. Plans 1 month ahead. Lunches and afternoon coffee ok. City location ideal.
Top tips:
- City AM = Concise, accessible, briefing product and informs on the business agenda
- If exclusive, then great. If not, be honest. If story has appeared in print elsewhere, will not run it in paper. If appeared online only, may run it online too.
- Very news driven. Less trends focussed.
- Key hooks:
- London relevance
- UK relevance
- Areas of interest include:
- Challenger banks; £5m plus investments; Enterprise start ups with a news hook; renewable tech themes
- Always interested in comments immediately after US tech results. Within minutes.. 6-8pm Watching developments from US news sources.
- Other colleagues contribute to technology stories:
- James Warrington – telecoms, media and marketing + social platform stories
- Alexandra Rogers – autos, cars and transport stories
- Alex Daniel – manufacturing, industry angled stories
- Anna Menin – PE/VC investments, fintech, crypto and blockchain stories
- OpEds and Contributing articles goes to the Features desk
Best email: news@cityam.com
- Women tech leaders quotes and photos always of interest
