LAURA KINGSTON Managing Editor, High Life North Magazine
What were your career ambitions growing up?
When I was really young I wanted to be a vet. I used to cut all of my cuddly toys up with scissors then put them in cages with pin numbers while they got better – weird, I know! I ended up really enjoying English and History at school so started to pursue that instead. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, even at the point of graduation, but I saw an entry-level job for a Marketing Assistant advertised on the University notice board and the rest is history!
Tell us about your current role with High Life North?
I founded High Life North in November 2019 after feeling frustrated that the digital women’s magazines I really enjoyed reading were all London-centric. I knew that there must be loads of women in the North East who felt the same, so I set about creating a website and starting to get freelance contributions to create the content I wanted to read. I’m now the Managing Editor with a team of six staff based at our offices in Gosforth.
What is your proudest business achievement?
I’d been working at my kitchen table for five months getting High Life North off the ground. All of our editorial was free initially as we were in such early days of building our profile. When the first lockdown hit in March 2020 we reacted really quickly with banana bread recipes, at-home workouts and a book club – our readers just went through the roof. By the October of that year we’d spent a year building up a community of over 25,000 women in the region who were really engaged and regularly read the magazine. It felt great to have built that up so quickly and now it just continues to go from strength to strength.
How has your industry changed in the last decade?
Digital magazines didn’t really exist in this format a decade ago – the industry is so new. A lot of print magazines thought that putting their print version into a pdf online or cutting and pasting the articles onto the website made a magazine digital – but it’s so much more than that. People reading online have a significantly shorter attention span, so it’s really important to have the digital marketing expertise that knows how to present content, then how to best promote it.
What are you currently working on?
We’ve got lots in the pipeline but a really important strategy for us is to make sure we’re doing everything that we currently do as well as possible before moving on to something else. We’ve got a directory called the Little Black Book which we’re continuing to develop, and we’re launching a What’s On calendar soon too.
We’re planning on doing a lot more in Teesside next year, too.
Tell us about the team you work with?
They’re fantastic! Every one of the women that I’ve hired have accelerated the business forward more than I could have imagined. We’ve got a really strong in-house team who work on creation and delivery of the magazine, then a team of really talented suppliers for photography and videography to ensure we create the best quality content possible. We then work closely with agencies to ensure that our content gets out to the right people effectively. I’d never worked for a magazine before so we’ve literally made it all up as we go along, and I’m very happy with the well-oiled machine we’ve created.
What is the best piece of business advice you have been given?
Keep a very close eye on costs. Don’t rely on a spreadsheet to tell you whether you’re making money or not. The cash in bank doesn’t lie. If you haven’t got any, it’s not working.
What has been your biggest challenge?
The fact that I hadn’t even worked for a magazine or a publisher before. At first I had to figure out all of the processes as well as be the accountant, web developer, editor, photographer, receptionist – and the rest! It’s actually worked out incredibly well though. We aren’t constrained by tradition in any way, we just do what’s best for our readers, our advertisers and our staff. I really love the way we’re doing it.
Who are your heroes inside and outside of business?
Inside business I’d have to say my second boss Mary Dryden. She really shaped who I became professionally and I couldn’t thank her more for really instilling those high standards into me. I feel really happy passing those standards on to the team at High Life North now, because I know how valuable they’ll always be to me. Outside of business – all of the incredible women we’ve featured since we launched. We’re huge advocates of celebrating real women in our region doing amazing things. It’s felt great to be able to give them a platform to be recognised.
How do you unwind outside of work?
I can’t say I have much downtime. As soon as I start to unwind my mind fills with ideas for High Life North. I like watching YouTube in French – it really helps me relax when I want my brain to switch off.
Favourite book, album and film?
Can I say Netflix series? I loved The Bold Type (guilty pleasure) and I’m currently obsessed with Hit and Run.
