Working as an Editor at Haymarket

Tell me about your role and the work your team does

I know WIN/WAN has a young, highly engaged and widespread audience of architects and designers.  Last year WAN had users from more than 120 different countries so Nav Pal and I work as an enthusiastic team of two to grow that audience further by providing a slew of informative and inspiring stories of innovative buildings and interiors for subscribers. 

We also provide editorial support to the WAN Awards, the WIN Awards, the British Home Awards and WAN: Female Frontier Awards, with another one brewing at the development stage. 

Nav and I also record two regular podcasts, Women Build and World Build.  These were set up initially to support several of Haymarket’s awards and have become popular amongst the WIN WAN communities.  Both are proving to be a successful route to meet key individuals and find out what’s important to the sectors.  

What excites you most about your role?

I’d like to think we are establishing a brand that fosters the next generation of visionary leaders, wherever they are operating. 

WAN has the ability to support the architecture and design communities wherever they are based, currently with project stories, general news and podcasts. We aim to provide inspiration and a design “wow factor” via our daily bulletins, and to get information out to both the large, well resourced and smaller, less affluent studios.  

Working alongside Haymarket’s Awards team we are building the community around the brand.  We can see that around nine people in Malaysia click on the bulletin at the same time each day and we have regular listeners to the podcasts from around 100 countries.  If we can offer inspiration and useful information to support subscribers’ careers then I feel we are doing our job well. 

The management of climate change and environmental stresses is a worldwide problem and needs a global approach. So by providing examples of best practice and having the conversations about innovation we hope WAN will fuel aspirations and promote more effective and energy efficient designs or builds.  

My biggest challenge right now is…not work related!

Flexible working in the team means…

Regular catch ups, listening and catching concerns early to then work on effective solutions. 

Following up on ideas and investigating ways of making them work. 

Planning ahead with the team so everybody can see how their part is a critical cog in the larger wheel of delivery. 

What does it take to be a successful editor at Haymarket?

Enthusiasm to find out more about the subjects you are involved in.  Explore out what interests people, and why. 

 An eye for detail and an ability to plan ahead so you can spot any challenges that might be sprinting up the path. When it comes to white space on a page or silence in a podcast that will need filling, always have a back up plan, what could go wrong, may go wrong.

Tackle the difficult questions - these are the questions that people will want asked.

 A friendly disposition helps, as does a willingness to engage. Keep a sense of humour to the fore.

What’s the most important thing to do when you move as an editor into different products?

I started looking at and writing about packaging and then gently pivoted to edit Printing World.  However, in the latter years I’ve had a somewhat digger oriented career at Haymarket.  I’ve focused on big holes and celebrated what’s in them (Mineral Planning).  I’ve followed the permissions of bulk filling of said holes with refuse (Waste Planning), then amongst other environmentally oriented subjects examined land and probed what’s in the holes (one small part of ENDS Report), and now I’m finally looking at what’s built out of holes and how they are decorating the result (World Architecture News and World Interiors News).

What is your final piece of advice for someone considering an editing role with Haymarket?

If you start in a completely new sector as I have done several times, the one thing I’d suggest is you try to go to every related conference, gathering and  interview you can, and as early as possible.  Spot the key people in the sector, link in with them and basically ask them to tell you all they know in their area of specialism. I found people will often want to talk about their work and find it rather refreshing to be asked about it.