Let’s talk about January. Yes, already.

Hello! It’s an absolute thrill to say that I’m your new Health & Wellbeing RoxStar. As a health journalist and editor who has worked across Women’s Health, Men’s Health, HuffPost UK and Red, I’ll be bringing my insights from this side of the industry – and reflections on the ways that effective PR has influenced the things I think and write about – to this column, every week.

Firstly, some reflections on 2025 (already, yes, I’m sorry.) Working in health journalism, two months are pivotal. There’s September, when ‘back to school’ energy proliferates and people think about making good on their goals for the year, before it shimmies into the sunset. There’s also, of course, January.

I – and other health editors, I’m sure – devote much of Q4 to working out plans for the first month of the new year, when motivation to make change is high. That’s for print, yes (planning for and work on January issues is on-going as we speak) but digital, too. The pressure to have pieces primed for those gauzy first days of 2025 which speak to the renewed interest in becoming a healthier version of oneself is high. This means that I need to have plenty of features for the site and social content prepped and ready before I clock off for Christmas. And it’s here, perhaps more so than at any other point in the calendar, where I rely on help from the PR side of the industry.

That might look like having a new style of productivity journal pitched, and subsequently setting up an interview for a ‘how to work smarter in 2025’ piece. It could be having coffee with someone who is working with an author who has a promising new self-help book out or an expert who has tips for handling break-ups as we head into ‘divorce season’ (which January – sadly – is). It might be finding out about the latest raft of apps focusing on high protein cooking or what the latest femtech development is for trend-focused features. The key? Highlighting now that you’ve got the goods for 2025. Trust me, we’re thankful for it.