Career progression
My life at Newsquest, by Maggie Williams
“It’s a fun place to work where the social side is as important as the work!”
My time at Newsquest Specialist Media shows that your long-term career progression doesn’t have to be constrained by your current role. I joined the company in 2003 as editor of Double Bassist magazine, a specialist music magazine, and soon after added editorship of International Piano to my job description. The chance to redesign and reposition International Piano was one of the highlights of my work on the magazine. – and it was great to see the work that we did have a material effect on International Piano’s advertising and readership figures. The repositioning also helped us to take on media sponsorship of one of the UK’s biggest piano concert series.
In 2008, I made a break from the music world and headed over to NSM’s financial sector to become executive editor of pension magazine, Engaged Investor, and asset management title, The Fund Business. While getting to grips with the subject matter was one of my first priorities after the move, many of the general editorial skills that I’d developed on the music publications remain the same – magazines have to be full of words and pictures to go to the printers on time, whatever they’re about.
Across all of the magazines that I’ve worked on here, the sales and editorial teams have worked closely together to make sure that our magazines are as successful editorially and financially as they can be. It’s a fun place to work where the social side is as important as the work!
My name is Nathan and I’m an Associate Editor with StrategicRISK magazine.
“I feel really lucky to have found a job with a company that has been able to offer me great opportunities and the support to develop my career”
I work closely with two other editors and together we publish about eight issues of the magazine every year. For me that means I have quite a few responsibilities. First, I have to work as a journalist and report on what risks I think European businesses need to be aware of. That is really interesting because I get to dig up my own stories, talk to people about what they mean and provide analysis about the events that I see in the news. I’m also responsible for the editorial side of the website www.strategicrisk.co.uk. That means, as well as filling the magazine each issue, I have to make sure the website has fresh content on it everyday. It also means our journalists can comment immediately on world events and keep our readers informed and up-to-date about what’s going on in their marketplace.
One of the best things about my job is I get to travel to different parts of Europe and meet lots of interesting people from a variety of different backgrounds. I also particularly enjoy writing about the important things that affect all our lives, like globalisation, climate change, terrorism and the world economy.
I didn’t start my career with Newsquest Specialist Media (NSM) or at StrategicRISK magazine. After I completed my postgraduate degree in Journalism, I lived in Toronto, Canada for two years and worked as a freelance journalist. I came back to Britain in April 2007 and I joined NSM as a reporter for one of the other financial magazines. The thing about NSM is there are a whole range of magazines all in one place. When I started with the company I worked closely with lots of financial journalists and after about 6 months one of them recommended me for a job with StrategicRISK. I jumped at the chance to progress my career by moving into a more senior position with a very well respected professional magazine. After about a year working as a Senior Reporter I was offered the chance to move into the Associate Editor’s role.
I feel really lucky to have found a job with a company that has been able to offer me great opportunities and the support to develop my career.
