Author: Gareth Jones

What made you want to work in the magazine industry?

I’ve always been a film nerd and consumed movie magazines – as a kid I couldn’t believe that reporting on-set was a job a person could do and I became obsessed with one day being a journalist watching a movie being made on location. The day I found myself watching Daniel Craig shoot guns in Istanbul while filming Skyfall was when I knew my 13-year-old self would be chuffed!

Can you chart your journey from when you started out to your current position?

As a 14-year-old, I got work experience with Just Seventeen and that only whet my appetite for journalism, so I applied for work experience at The Yorkshire Post. I was so tenacious/precocious that I ended up freelancing for them on their ‘Youth Style’ page though my teens – writing reviews, interviews with celebs of the day (Phillip Schofield, Jakki Brambles [now known as Jackie Brambles], Spandau Ballet) and think pieces.

I was the Film Editor on my student paper and then completed a diploma in Periodical Journalism at City, University of London. During my time there I propped up my student loan with shifts on The Sunday Times newsdesk, and after graduation, started my first salaried journalism job as Staff Writer on free film mag Flicks.

From there, I freelanced for Total Film and various other non-movie corporate and consumer outlets (working in B2B titles was a valuable learning curve) until I got the job of Features Editor on Total Film. From there, I became Acting Editor, Editor, then Editor-in-Chief. I am currently Group Editor-In-Chief of Film, looking afterTotal Film and SFX.

Do you have a go-to work outfit?

Anything that doesn’t have mad patterns and isn’t green, so that if I’m asked to do a TV chat I’m green screen ready!

What do you turn to when you’re on deadline – tea/coffee/snacks?

Our team spends a lot of time in the States, particularly LA, on film sets and at junkets and we’ve become very fond of American candy called Swedish Fish. It’s now mandatory for anyone going to America to bring a bag back specifically for deadline sugar lows.

What’s the most unusual situation you’ve found yourself in because of your job?

The great thing about my job is that it’s never the same each day ­– I’m often in odd, far-flung locations watching scenes being filmed that look really odd until the SFX, sound, score etc are added later – or interviewing actors in weird spaces.

Often the most unusual things that happen are the things I can’t really talk about without betraying confidences – the time I had to dispose of an actor’s wee in a beer bottle when he’d been caught short during an interview (there were no loos), talking to a star off the record about a hugely famous romantic bust-up, driving round LA with an actress listening to bonkers audiobooks in her car…

What would people be surprised to know about your job?

That we don’t watch films ALL day.

Walk me through your typical day.

There’s no such thing as a typical day!

If you didn’t have to sleep, how would you use the remaining hours in the day?

Watching films. No matter how many we watch there’s still so many more I want to see.

What is the last photo you took on your phone (at time of interview)? Why?

A picture of the current issue of Total Film to social because communicating with readers via Twitter and Instagram is an essential part of my job – and it’s great for star stalking before an interview!

What’s your guilty pleasure?

Watching videos of Dr Pimple Popper [also known as Dr Sandra Lee] squeezing spots, boils and cysts. I don’t know why, but I love it!

Whose phone number do you wish you had?

Tiffany Haddish. No matter what she says, it’s funny. I feel like she’d be a great person to call if you’d had a bad day.

What’s the worst piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

“Try the tripe, it’s actually really tasty.” It was not.

What/where is your happy place?

On a transatlantic plane knowing I have 11 hours of no emails or calls, a ton of movies to watch and dinner on a tray. My team know I love it so much that they call it my ‘spa in the sky’.

What would people be surprised to know about you?

That I’ve never seen Mean Streets or The Seventh Seal.

What would be in your Room 101?

Embargoes.

Introvert or extrovert?

Extrovert.

Optimist or pessimist?

Pessimist.

Film or television? What are you binge-watching at the moment?

Obviously film – but I do like TV binge-watches. I’m currently getting through Manhunt: Unabomber.

Sweet or savoury?

Sweet.

Morning person or night owl?

Morning person.

Tea or coffee?

Coffee, but – perversely – decaf.

Emojis – cool or cringey? Which emoji do you use the most?

Neither, just unavoidable. Most used is probably the glass of red wine. Oh dear.

What made you want to work in the magazine industry?

Well, I didn't want to work in magazines first of all. I wanted to be a news reporter on a newspaper and that's really where my interest in journalism started. Then, in my early to mid-teens, I discovered the NME. I discovered ads for gigs in places that sounded terribly exotic – in London and Northampton. I started to fall in love with music.

Can you chart your journey from when you started out to your current position?

I started in a very small way at a free sheet in north Belfast called The Link. I realised I needed to get some proper qualifications, so I did a post-grad in journalism. I managed to convince the people at The Link to pay for that for me – as long as I kept on doing some work for them.

Then I went to The Fermanagh Herald. I did my training there and I became friends with a guy called Colin Murray, who is now a very successful tv and radio host, in Belfast. We set up a magazine called Blank not really knowing what we were doing, but it was great fun – we learned a lot and made a lot of mistakes.

After that, I went to the NME and did four years there. I went freelance for a while. The Big Issue was changing things around in Scotland, so I went over to Glasgow. I started out as Deputy Editor of the Scottish edition, then became Editor of the Scottish edition, then things changed around and I became Editor of the British edition.

Do you have a go-to work outfit?

I'm quite simple, old-fashioned. I like to wear a well-cut shirt, trousers and a good jacket – that's about it.

What do you turn to when you’re on deadline – tea/coffee/snacks?

Coffee. It's always very strong, black coffee – and as much of it as I can find.

What’s the most unusual situation you’ve found yourself in because of your job?

When we were working on a special edition of The Big Issue, Mark Millar, the comic book creator, was guest editing the magazine. It was on the theme of heroes and he got different people he knew or that he was associated with to interview their heroes. We had Mark Hamill, who is Luke Skywalker, interviewing Ray Davies from The Kinks. I was in a very strange position where Luke Skywalker was asking me for pointers and I was helping him construct questions that he was going to ask Ray Davies. That was pretty weird.

What would people be surprised to know about your job?

With any Editor, people are always asking, “What is it you actually do?” If they were to find out what Editors do, that might be a surprise for them. I don't know how much I can reveal, or what I'd want to reveal. I can't spoil the magic.

Walk me through your typical day.

We tend to start with a conference. It's a catch-up with editorial and production, reviewing where we are, where things are digitally, making sure everyone's clear on what they're doing and that we're getting the best out of the pages. It’s quite a brief thing – 15 minutes. We've got people in our office in London and people in our office in Glasgow, so it's just so that everybody is happy.

After that, I might have a couple of other meetings or phone conferences. I start to check pages, I'll start to answer correspondence. I will then think about content that we're missing, content that I'd like to see in, correcting some things. There's quite a lot of discussion with commercial teams and with advertising. There's invariably some new talent who will get in touch with different ideas, so we'll take a look at that.

How has being a member of the PPA helped you/added value to your brand?

You meet a lot of people that perhaps you wouldn't otherwise and you learn things from them, like how to make your magazine better. You share ideas and content thoughts and you look to raise your own standard. It's about introductions, opening doors and possibilities.

If you didn’t have to sleep, how would you use the remaining hours in the day?

I'd eat everything. I'd like to develop some elements of the magazine, work out how I get more pages in and get better pages in. I'd read a lot more and I'd probably visit a lot more churches. I love church architecture and I don't have half enough time to go and visit churches and cathedrals.

What’s your guilty pleasure?

I don't feel guilty about any of the things I like. I like 15th/16th century choral music, so every now and again when I want a particular atmosphere in the office, I'll put on some choral music, which I know might annoy people.

Whose phone number do you wish you had?

Eric Cantona. We would chat about everything – football, Manchester United, nothing too heavy – going out for a pint just to chew the fat.

What’s the worst piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

“Stay working with me, because although the money isn't very good, you'll learn an awful lot.” The guy who gave me that advice, a few weeks later, the company went bust.

What/where is your happy place?

I like being out somewhere barren, remote, on the top of a hill. The landscape looks quite bleak – it's hard to see through a misty rain. There are no people around. There’s no phone signal. I’m just wandering about there, the dog running in and out of heather.

What would people be surprised to know about you?

I really like church architecture. I have a favourite cathedrals list for cathedrals in mainland Europe and also for churches, depending on the period of church. My favourite religious building is Durham Cathedral. It is the most incredible piece of architecture with that late Norman look to it, vast incredible ceilings, great architecture and beautiful rose windows. There are also some very small churches in Brittany that I really like – weird churches with only windows on one side and a single door. I can usually find something in most that I like.

There's a few cathedrals in mainland France and Germany that I want to see and there's one in Finland that's got particularly curious architecture. I take a lot of photos – I'll take photos of the door and of arches and of windows. I am a terrible bore.

John Bird, who's the founder of The Big Issue, shares my enthusiasm for church architecture. We used to arrange to have meetings once or twice a year to review where the magazine is and where it's going, but we'd have it in cathedral cities. We'd each go and take in a cathedral, we'd have the meeting and then we'd go our separate ways. We went through different cathedrals across Britain in that way.

If The Big Issue was solely my interests, it'd be churches, cathedrals, Manchester United, red wine and music. It'd be very niche and I'm not sure it would sell an awful lot, so I tend not to put that in too much.

What would be in your Room 101?

Missing a deadline – that we wouldn't get into print or making a terrible mistake. I worry all week that something bad has happened to the magazine. That is a constant low-grade, gnawing fear.

Introvert or extrovert?

Probably more extroverted than introverted.

Optimist or pessimist?

Optimist.

Film or television? What are you binge-watching at the moment?

Television. I keep going back to old comedies. I started watching The Office again, I love Father Ted. There's a show called Death in Paradise set in the Caribbean and there's always a murder. It's absolute garbage, but I do find myself enjoying that. As much as edifying television, I like bad tv.

Sweet or savoury?

Savoury.

Morning person or night owl?

Both.

Tea or coffee?

Coffee.

Emojis – cool or cringey? Which emoji do you use the most?

I fucking hate them. I have never sent one in my life – never. I've taken maybe two selfies in my life and one of those was by mistake.

What made you want to work in the magazine industry?

I grew up reading magazines including The Face, Blitz and Mixmag and it was while studying for my degree that I decided I would love to work in the magazine industry. I was a big fan of i-D magazine at the time, so I wrote and asked if I could do a work placement there. They turned me down.

Can you chart your journey from when you started out to your current position?

The internet was just taking off when I left university and I was hooked, so I wanted a job where a) I could get free, fast internet all day and b) I could work in magazines, so I took a job as a Production Editor on a magazine which wrote about the internet, as weird a concept as that probably seems now. We reviewed websites, because Google didn’t exist, and we wrote tutorials on how to use obscure services such as Usenet and IRC [Internet Relay Chat].

I worked on a bunch of tech mags over the next few years before joining TechRadar as Editor. I was later promoted to Global Editor-in-Chief there. After that, I worked on an Android news and reviews website in Berlin for a couple of years, then I joined BikeRadar at Immediate Media as Global Editor-in-Chief and now I’m at T3 at Future.

Do you have a go-to work outfit?

Trainers, skinny jeans and an unironed shirt. I’m not sure that really counts as an outfit as such, but hey.

What do you turn to when you’re on deadline – tea/coffee/snacks?

Working online means we’re on deadline every day, or multiple times a day, so I don’t turn to anything beyond my bottle of water, which I usually forget to drink until I wonder why I have a headache.

What’s the most unusual situation you’ve found yourself in because of your job?

Living in Berlin. I had no plans to move abroad, but I was approached by a company based there and I thought that if I turned the opportunity down I’d regret it for the rest of my life. I feel hugely fortunate that my career path gave me that opportunity – I now think of Berlin as my second home and return there when I get the chance.

What would people be surprised to know about your job?

It’s really boring. I mean, it’s not! But people assume that on T3 we get to attend loads of cool product launches in interesting places. We do from time to time, but that’s where the writers go. You’re more likely to find me in the office working on ideas with the editorial and commercial teams or poking around in Google Analytics looking for interesting opportunities.

Walk me through your typical day.

I have a list of things I want to get through each day and I work through them. They generally centre around creating a better product, which could mean working with writers on story angles, coming up with ideas in response to commercial briefs, analysing our traffic trends or submitting product requests and bug reports.

If you didn’t have to sleep, how would you use the remaining hours in the day?

I’d time shift my working hours and work while it was dark and then spend more daylight time getting out on my motorbike and my bicycle.

What is the last photo you took on your phone (at time of interview)?

It’s this amazing piece of art. If I park in a multi-storey, I’m hopeless at remembering where I left the car so I usually take a photo so I can find it after a day out shopping.

What’s your guilty pleasure?

Nineties Eurodance! Ace of Base, 2 Unlimited, Dr Alban…

Whose phone number do you wish you had?

David Bowie’s. Obviously, there’s not a lot of point in having it now, but he was such an inspiration for me growing up that I would have loved to just be able to phone him up one day and say thank you.

What’s the worst piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

I’ve heard a couple of times that having a fast car is good, because you can “accelerate out of trouble.” Now, I’m all for having fast cars, but it strikes me that flooring it in dangerous situations is not a smart safety strategy – unless perhaps you’re being chased by an assassin.

What/where is your happy place?

Sitting on the grass in a park in Berlin on a hot summer evening, drinking a cold bottle of beer from the local Späti [corner store] and watching the world go by.

What would people be surprised to know about you?

I have a degree in advertising and before I worked in journalism I worked in direct marketing.

What would be in your Room 101?

People who walk slowly. Pavements need a dawdling lane and an overtaking lane.

Introvert or extrovert?

An extroverted introvert, apparently. It is a thing, you can Google it.

Optimist or pessimist?

Definitely an optimist, or I’d never get out of bed.

Film or television? What are you binge-watching at the moment?

TV. It’s just so good at the moment and you usually don’t have to sit next to random people eating popcorn. I’ve finally got around to watching the Fargo series and I’m really enjoying it.

Sweet or savoury?

Savoury. I don’t like sweet food at all, which seems to completely baffle people who do like sweet food.

Morning person or night owl?

Morning.

Tea or coffee?

Coffee, but I generally limit myself to one cup a day.

Emojis – cool or cringey? Which emoji do you use the most?

I love them, and I use them to the point where I wonder whether my work colleagues think they are conversing with a teenager. I probably use the eye-rolling one the most at the moment, but only in the T3 Slack channel, not in replies to emails from my manager.