By Amanda Belo
From pre-med to writing, Susan Avery fell into journalism amidst her senior year in college. Since then she has progressed with the times finding the value in having experience on all media platforms. That’s why when she jumped into the new media landscape in 2006, after working in both print and broadcast media, she did so with purpose and has not turned back.
Since April, Avery has been at the helm of the digital efforts of More magazine as the digital director, and has thoroughly enjoyed working with the team thus far. She has high regard for the publication’s team and extreme respect for what the magazine values and represents.
“It’s almost like you are coming into a family and it’s really nice to be here,” she said. “There are no similar magazines. More is an island unto itself and a very lush island at that. There is no magazine that targets this demographic and offers a full-range of information, fun and pithy with the same level of class every single month.”
Avery was most recently the editor in chief of AOL’s parenting website ParentDish. One of the biggest differences she notices between the two platforms is that at More, the print magazine sets precedence.
“Our guiding light is the print magazine. That’s the big difference when you are working with an internet company with no print component. Everything is about the Web. At More, you keep your eyes on both things at the same time,” she explained.
Avery is in charge of everything Web-related at More, including social networking, apps, and the website. Though it is mainly just Avery and her assistant who work specifically on the magazine’s digital side, she said that More’s digital platform is a collaborative effort involving the print staff as well.
“Every single person at More magazine has a stake in the website. This is a wonderful way to do business. It gives everyone on the print side an opportunity to post their own content and see the growth.”
“If you’re not on the Web as a journalist, there is something really wrong,” she said. “You have to be plugged in. If you are not, you are missing the boat.”
Avery has major plans to grow More on the Web. Her immediate plans are to grow traffic as well as provide strong content that makes a difference.
“I’m fortunate that I am starting with a high [online reader] base, but my goal is to double that by the end of the year,” she said. “I really feel like there are people out there who don’t know that More has an amazing website with incredibly deep content that they would be interested in.”
Keeping audiences engaged is a challenge that media faces no matter what platform. There are different ways to approach readers, for example, through a magazine and online.
“The way people ingest print is different from the way they ingest Web. There is the ADD-ification,”— a term frequently used by Avery to describe reader attention span online – “when they are reading on the Web. The nature of it is just to move through things very quickly. Read a headline, read a couple of ‘graphs and move on.”
Therefore, Avery makes sure to stay in tune with her reader base and to keep the audience engaged by being “hyper-niche, fetishy, focused” she said. She believes in truly focusing on the target audience and communicating with readers. “Our magazine’s tagline says that it is for women of style and substance. Our features highlight women in the world making a difference.”
Pitching Tips
Avery prefers to be contacted by email and said that a follow-up call is not necessary. “Please don’t make the follow-up call. If I’m interested, I promise you I will write you back.”
As far as topics of interest, anything that is relevant to More can be pitched. Those who are familiar with the magazine and its audience should be less stressed about their pitch getting tossed.
“If a good publicist picks up a copy of the magazine they will see. Know your audience. I just got a pitch for diaper bags and of course I deleted that. But I also just got fabulous moisturizer that is specifically for drier skin. That is something we might write about.” She added, “My crowd has plenty of places to go for parenting information. What they are looking for at More.com is about them, not about their kids or significant other.”
