What it's really like working at a magazine

Hint: it's nothing like The Bold Type

When I chose to leave my job as editor of STELLAR Magazine late last year, I knew I had to be very, very sure about the decision I was making. Becoming editor more than six years previously had been a life peak, and something I only ever dreamt about when I started out as an annoyingly eager editorial assistant aged 22. And it was a dream job in so many ways. But the thing about dreams is that they have a shelf-life. Eventually you wake up, or start to dream about something new.

My first journalism job was back in college, when I somehow scored a gig writing a dating column for the Trinity News. I look back and laugh, because I didn’t enjoy my time at Trinners and barely hung around campus - what did I know about the sex lives of these college girls and boys?

With my final year looming and a paltry six hours a week on the schedule, I was itching to get out in to the professional world. I have always been almost unbearably precocious; on the first day of Junior Infants, I asked when we’d be getting homework. So I took a notion and started emailing around looking for a summer job with the promise of more. Two roads diverged in the woods; one, a paid internship at Google. The other, a full time job writing for KISS Magazine.

Always loved a mag

It’s fate that meant I got the latter (I got down to the final two in Google, and often wonder where that road would have taken me). The boss liked my chutzpah and turn of phrase with Sex and the Students, and hired me at least for the summer (and we’d see what happened). All of a sudden, I was being paid to write. For a glam teen mag! Just like Lauren on The Hills!

I know I was irritating at first. The team were probably like WHO is this little Hunzo from Tallaght rotting us about more articles to write. But I settled in, made great friends and published loads of features in print. I learned so much, soaking it all up like a sponge. I will never forget my first phone interview (McFly) or my first in-person one (Bressie at the height of his Blizzards rideyness). By the end of the summer, it was kind of a given that I’d be sticking around, with special permission to attend lectures on my lunch break.

This pic is blurry, but you can tell I am THRILLED

I spent four brilliant years at KISS, and was promoted to Deputy Editor after two. It was a really difficult time in Ireland; about a year after I got in the door, the recession hit full force, and mags felt the brunt like any other industry that relies on discretionary spending and robust marketing budgets. But it’s funny, I don’t really remember much of that. I was certainly earning a low wage - my partner had been made redundant and we were paying rent - and I’m sure I must have lived on toast and scrimped and saved, but I never felt hard done by.

In my mind, those are halcyon days. My friends and I were out at a press launch two or three weeknights every single week, and I rarely went out at the weekend because I couldn’t afford to actually pay for drinks. I met amazing people I’d looked up to, interviewed celebrities like One Direction, Katy Perry and the cast of Glee, and I went on my first press trips. I received PR gifts, started learning the beauty writing trade and even had my own column with a glam picture every month. It was bloody brilliant.

Harry looked down my top and said “ooh, lovely jubblies!” That is a true story.

I’m not sure exactly why I decided to leave then, in 2012. I knew I was hankering for a change, but I didn’t know what that would be. I’d gone to London for a couple of weeks, to interview and see if I’d like it over there. I did not. The robotic commuting, sprawling metropolis, and the fact that I’d be much lower on the totem pole there than here all meant I was going to stay put. When I accepted a job at the Irish Independent a few months later, I didn’t know it would change my life entirely.

I edited and created supplements at the Indo, working on four or five of them over my time there. I learned an unbelievable amount, totally different stuff to mag land - in a newsroom it’s news (obvs), politics, farming, business. I met my husband there, I made friends. I experienced the heartbreak of corporate politics, and lived through another media environment in a tumultuous period - this time, it was the Digital Revolution making waves in print.

Some favourite covers from my time as editor-in-chief. We shot that one of Maura Higgins backstage at an event in 90 seconds flat

By the time I went back to STELLAR as editor, I was ready. I’d done another two-year stint freelancing, I was getting married and buying a house and I wanted some stability. I had really missed magazines; I’m a nerd that loves layouts and fonts and cover shoots, and that whole print experience. And those six years were largely fabulous - I started a popular beauty podcast, created two new awards ceremonies and had a lot of fun. I was promoted to MD in 2019, and worked to innovate and keep everything going throughout the pandemic. But by last summer, my feet were very itchy indeed. I knew it was time to move on.

So what have I learned from those 15 years working on magazines?

• Magazine covers are a science. It’s not just about how pretty they are - they need to connect with the buyer, leap off the shelf and SELL. If they don’t sell, you will go out of business. It’s that simple.

• A lot of people think they know it all about editing magazines, and they have absolutely no idea. That’s why I think before I comment about how someone else does their job now. There is SO MUCH behind the scenes that nobody sees.

• You’re never, ever going to please everyone, no matter how hard you try,

• Readers know when they’re being led up the garden path. They are smart, never try to fool them.

• Magazine journalists are a very particular kind. When I started working at KISS, I met my tribe. It is absolutely NOT for everyone - you need guts and gumption and talent and perseverance. You need to be able to do the decidedly not glam things, like tramping around town with garment bags and interviewing pop stars about periods because they’re promoting tampons.

• Mags are a labour of love. I knew it was time to go when I thought about the annual Christmas Gift Guide and groaned internally. When you lose the passion for every single page, you’re done.

• The freebies are quite excellent. That cannot be denied and is a HUGE perk. But in journalism, integrity is key. You cannot write about something that won’t connect your audience, or you’ll lose them. That means turning down things that won’t click sometimes.

• The parties are fun, too. But these things are cyclical. Events I used to chomp at the bit to go to are no longer my cup of tea. And there is NO such thing as a free lunch, and you must sing for your supper. Trust me on that.

• Press trips can be fun, but they can also be nightmarish. I will never forget the one I went to at the Twilight convention in Birmingham, in which I had to share a bed with colleague I barely knew, and missed our Ryanair flight home cos we’d had to sort out own transport and luggage. I’m also no longer interested in group trips with strangers, or day trips to London to see a mascara. I’m old! I like my comforts and my own house. If I’m leaving my dog, it’s gotta be for a good reason.

• Only the magazines you regularly buy and engage with will stick around. They need your support, so give it to the ones you love. It’s harder than ever to find them onshelves these days because shops prioritise things with better markup. Seek them out! Follow on Insta, vote in awards and surveys, show them your love.

Even dream jobs are not all hearts and rainbows, there are times of proper stress and burnout. And because you care so much about what you’re doing, it becomes a huge part of your identity. But working in magazines is not the be all and end all, nor is it life and death. Yet when it’s good, oh my god, it’s the very best.

I am currently very happy discovering my next chapter, quite literally. My debut novel is coming next year, published by Penguin, and that’s something I’ve hoped for all my life. This is a wildest dream come true, and proof that you should never stop striving. Who knows how it will all go, but it’s all very exciting finding out. Long live print, in every form!