So what is a typical day really like for a digital editor? Miss FQ’s Kelly McAuliffe shares a breakdown of her 9-5…
Except my day isn’t really 9-5. The world of digital never stops, so sometimes it’s a 9-8 kind of day or even an 8-11 if I have crazy deadlines to meet and evening events to attend! Although some days are longer, I wouldn’t change what I do for the world – there’s always something new to be excited about and that’s what keeps it interesting.
Despite the fast-paced nature of the job, I like to keep busy in my free time, too. Call me crazy, but I feel better when I use as many hours in the day as possible… to exercise, keep inspired, socialise or simply wind down. On this particular day, I’m taking the new Huawei P20 Pro phone along with me, to help me keep track of my diary, keep in touch with my colleagues and any breaking news, and post content to Miss FQ’s websites and social media, even when I’m on the go.
Here’s what a typical day looks like for me as the digital editor of Miss FQ and Fashion Quarterly:
I am by no means a morning person, but in the last year or so I’ve been forcing myself up to fit in some exercise before work. Sometimes—and I’m not even kidding here—I actually look forward to it so much that I’m already wide awake when the alarm sounds (although let’s just say that is usually the exception rather than the rule). When the alarm goes off on the P20 Pro on this particular morning, I spend 15 minutes checking emails and social notifications (gotta keep on top of those Instagrams), get into my workout gear, attempt a haphazard topknot (I repeat, I’m no morning person) and jump in my car to head to hot yoga.
When the weather starts to cool down, there is nothing I love more than heading to Rise Studio in Parnell for a Power Flow class first thing. The room is already heated to 35 degrees so you feel warm and cosy, even on the coldest mornings. That comforting feeling soon gives way to real heat and an increased heart rate and you quickly find yourself building up a real sweat. After countless chaturungas and finally mastering mermaid pose (yas), I quickly snap a selfie on the Huawei P20 Pro (otherwise did it really happen?)
I head back out into the cool morning but now feel super energised and ready to tackle the day. I sync up the P20 Pro to my car stereo to play a podcast and fit in 20 mins of mental Berocca on the way home. I’m currently hopping between TheCurrent Innovators (which profiles industry leaders who are pushing the boundaries of fashion, beauty and retail); Michael Rapaport’s I Am Rapaport series (I could seriously listen to his voice forever) and Coffee Break French because, #secretgeek.
Before stepping into the office, I stop by neighbouring cafe Odettes to grab a coffee and some breakfast (their poached eggs and avocado on Freedom loaf is a great start to the day). Sadly, I am not human until I’ve had my morning coffee and today I need to be particularly switched on, as I have such a jam-packed agenda, including interviewing a major celebrity icon later on this evening… While I wait for my coffee, I jot down a few interview questions in the Notes section of the P20 Pro – I only have ten minutes of talk time with said celebrity but have so much I want to ask. Intrigued? You’ll have to wait until later in the day to find out who it is!
Work starts with a quick meeting with my content producers to discuss the stories of the day and the plan for tackling our workload. We divide our time between our two brands—FQ.co.nz and MissFQ.co.nz—and are responsible for creating daily stories, galleries and video content for both websites, updating the Facebook pages and Instagram accounts multiple times a day and sending out email newsletters to our subscriber base twice a week. Sound busy? We are! We finalise our story ideas and pop them into our content planning calendar, which tracks the status of each piece of content throughout the day.
This morning I am interviewing the very talented Madeleine Harman and Jessica Grubisa of coveted fashion label Harman Grubisa for Issue 2 of Fashion Quarterly magazine. I arrive on set as Madeleine is styling FQ editor Sally-Ann Mullin in a look that speaks to her own classic aesthetic (Jess earlier styled Sally-Ann in one of her own looks, which was an amazing head-to-toe pink number) and I snap a few photos on the Huawei P20 Pro, as we love to give our readers a behind-the-scenes glimpse at what goes into the making of our magazine. I sit down with Jess and Madeleine to find out about their new season collection and the trends that are on their radar right now—you can read about it in the latest issue of Fashion Quarterly, out now!
Back at my desk, I unbox some pretty packages which have been delivered while I’ve been in the photo studio. I’m no Eva Chen by any means, but I know how lucky I am to receive beauty products and other amazing newness to try (I think this is where you would use hashtag #blessed). I snap some flat lay shots on the P20 Pro and post them to Miss FQ and FQ’s Instagram accounts detailing when the products will be available in NZ (don’t worry guys, we’ve got you!). Next up, I tackle my email inbox, responding to pitches from PR contacts and replying to colleagues chasing me for content ideas for client briefs. Later today I have a meeting where I’ll be required to present traffic, engagement and audience stats from the last month to my boss and the wider team (not intimidating at all, right?), so I dive into our analytics tool and start populating various spreadsheets. Many aspects of my job are glamorous – unfortunately reporting is not!
I sit down with Miss FQ associate editor Phoebe Watt to look through entries for the Miss FQ Collective, a group we are forming which will consist of young, inspiring New Zealanders who want to contribute their views and thoughts via our magazine and digital platforms. In return, the lucky few will receive mentoring from the Miss FQ team as well as invitations to exclusive events, access to industry insiders and beauty products to review. We received so many amazing submissions that it is proving difficult for Phoebe and I to narrow it down to a shortlist, the calibre is so high. Sadly, we can only take so many people on in this first round – if you missed out this time, there will be more opportunities to join later this year, don’t worry!
We are celebrating a colleague’s birthday today with a lunch at, you guessed it, Odettes. The food and homemade sodas there are so pretty it’d be a crime not to photograph our spread – just as well the Huawei P20 Pro has a triple Leica camera, which is perfect for food lovers to capture professional-looking pics of their favourite meals (and most definitely helped along even further by its AI object recognition feature).
Back in the office and I have a few hours to write and edit content, publish stories to the website, commission some writers (including our upcoming June horoscopes by the amazing One Grounded Angel) and fire off a few Q&As to some impressive women who are at the top of their game for upcoming ‘How Did She Do That?‘ career features on FQ.co.nz. To have an hour of uninterrupted writing time is pure bliss, so I plug my earphones into the P20 Pro and turn the music up loud (a mix of new J.Cole, Dire Straits and LCD Soundsystem are doing it for me today).
It’s back-to-back meetings from now until 5.30pm. Aside from my reporting meeting (which goes really well – phew!), I have a meeting with Miss FQ’s commercial brand manager to discuss upcoming partnership and event commitments, a meeting with our video team to brief them in for our Facebook Live session ‘Tea with Kimberly’ (where our resident psychic and tarot reader from The Channelling does free live readings from our Facebook page) and a brainstorm for an upcoming top secret project that unfortunately I cannot reveal right now – but watch this space!
I leave work just after 5.30pm and dash across town to my French class. I’ve been saying for a number of years now learning French would be my New Year’s resolution, but 2018 is the year I’ve finally been making it happen. Today we are learning about ‘Le routine quotidienne’ – or daily routines. Well, what do you know?! There’s a few words here and there I can’t decipher, but luckily the Huawei P20 Pro has a real time language converter – simply take an image of text and it’ll convert it instantly into your language preference. Much easier than looking words up in a French-English dictionary.
Another perk of my job is getting to try out restaurants and wine events before they’re open to the public, and I’m not going to pretend to be mad at it! Tonight myself and my colleague have been lucky enough to score an invite to try the delicious Cloudy Bay Pinot Noir and Prosciutto tasting menu at Parnell restaurant, Gerome. We’re brought out a bottle of the Cloudy Bay Pinot Noir 2015 and the food match created by Gerome’s chefs; a roasted cauliflower dish with prosciutto and chestnuts. I’m about halfway through and enjoying every bite, when the P20 Pro alarm sounds to remind me I need to pop out for my scheduled celebrity interview…
This is what I mean about digital never sleeping – I duck out mid-way through dinner to sit in my car and receive a call from the one and only Kylie Minogue, who I’m interviewing via telephone from London this evening. Kylie has just launched a new collection of eyewear with Specsavers and I have a few minutes to chat to her about the collection, her style and what it truly means to be resilient. I hang up, check that the interview recorded perfectly on the P20 Pro (it did), and head back into the restaurant on a total high – I’ve been a fan of Kylie’s since the Neighbours days and she was an absolute dream to talk to. Definite career highlight.
Home from dinner and I usually need to unwind at the end of a day with a green tea and some kind of distraction before my head hits the pillow. The stack of books on my bedside table always do battle with a box set and I’m sorry to say that right now, that Netflix/Lightbox life is winning. I’m currently juggling new episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale with the latest season of Homeland while also catching up on the last few episodes of Suits. Yes, I might have a problem (but send me your recommendations anyway – I am always looking for a new box set to binge on!)
I set three or four alarms on my phone at five minute intervals, before triple checking it (because I’m paranoid like that). I take a last scroll through my emails and Instagram and have one more look at my calendar to check what my day is looking like tomorrow. Then it’s silk eye mask on and bedtime for me.
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