Postgraduate degree

MA Magazine Journalism (Grade: Merit)

University of Central Lancashire 2015-2016

NCTJ and PPA accredited course that focuses mainly on magazine production including two group magazines, a business and a consumer, and I was editor-in-chief of the business magazine and digital editor for the user.

During this course, I also learnt about the law and responsibilities of being a journalist, how to write hard news and how to use new media and how to tell a story in a variety of ways. As well as learning Teeline shorthand that I worked to 80 words a minute.

Undergraduate degree

BA (Hons) Journalism with Creative Writing (Grade 2:1)

University of Chester 2012-2015

During this three-year course, I learnt the foundations of journalism and how to work with others but mainly how to organise myself and develop an entire magazine on my own.

MCM Comic Con: Making Cosplay on YouTube panel

In October, I was part of the ‘Making cosplay on YouTube’ Panel at MCM Comic Con in London.

The panel was organised by London Small YouTubers and I was asked to be a part of this panel due to my videos about making cosplay and DIY videos on my YouTube channel.

I was on the panel with several of my YouTube friends; Hannah Carter (WatchThisHannah) and Lowri Ann with the panel being moderated by Will Carne.

During the panel we discussed video making, YouTube as a platform and the many hours it takes to create a cosplay outfit.

The panel has a great write up in My buzz: www.mymbuzz.com/2017/10/29/cosplay-videos-youtube-panel-at-mcm-london/ and it was well received by the people who came out to see it.

Overall it was a great experience and was my first time doing a panel. Now that I have done something on that scale I do want to do more in future at other conventions and conferences.

Below is the vlog I did from Comic Con plus the YouTube Space Halloween Party, which was on the same day:

Contact me

I would love to hear from you regarding opportunities, ideas or anything related to this portfolio or my brand in general.

Email: vicki.emily.evans@gmail.com

You can also contact me through any of my social media accounts or use the contact box below.

Youtube : nerdwithamanicure
Twitter : @vickiemilyevans
Instagram : @vickiemilyevans/
Facebook : vickiemilyevansyoutuber
Pintrest : vickiemilyevans 
LinkedIn : vicki-evans

Blogs:
Beauty Blog : nerdwithamanicure.wordpress.com
Professional Portfolio : vickiemilyevans.com
Forever the Single Girl blog: www.foreverthesinglegirl.wordpress.com

CV and portfolio

Editorial Work

kbbreview – Deputy Editor
April 2018 – present
I am currently the Deputy Editor at kbbreview – a B2B magazine for the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom industry. My role is across the print magazine and online channels and social media.

  • Write a variety of content for both print and digital including, analysis of the industry, company profiles, trends and news
  • Working closely with the editor and the team to develop continuing success of the brand
  • Orchestrate the digital growth of the brand on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram and analyse the statistics
  • Develop the social media strategy of the kbbreview Retail & Design Awards
  • Produce the bi-weekly newsletter, from generating the content to working with the sales department for ads to building the final newsletter
  • Manage the daily running of the kbbreview.com website and discover what is working with Google Analytics reports
  • Interview the global and UK leaders of the kitchen and bathroom industry
  • Be an ambassador for the brand at events and trades shows

Heating Ventilation and Plumbing and Builders’ Merchants News – Reporter
June 2017- November 2017

When I started at Hemming, I was working for two of its Building Services publications HVP and BMN. During this time I was able to multitask and manage my time between the two publications.

  • Reporting and writing for both online and print, including research and interviewing key industry figures
  • Organising magazine supplements and working with organisations to create content for them
  • Commissioning content with people in the industry or marketing agencies to provide articles
  • Producing the weekly newsletter and using HTML coding
  • Sub-editing and proofreading 
  • Creating pages using InDesign and Photoshop
  • Managing all four social media accounts and online marketing for the BMN Awards

Education

MA Magazine Journalism (Grade: Merit)
University of Central Lancashire 2015-2016

NCTJ and PPA accredited course that focuses mainly on magazine production.
Key modules included: Teeline shorthand (80 words a minute), creating content, digital journalism, specialist writing, newsroom practice, law for journalists and public affairs. 

Awards during MA

Highly Commended Magazine Academy Awards Best Original Concept 2016 

For the concept of “Teal”. It is a Food, travel and lifestyle magazine; I designed for my final MA project. 

UCLan Forte Fund Prize for Journalism 

For achieving the overall highest marks in both the MA Journalism and Magazine Journalism courses for the 2015-16 academic year. 

BA (Hons) Journalism with Creative Writing (Grade 2:1)
University of Chester 2012-2015

During this three-year course, I learnt the foundations of journalism and how to work with others but mainly how to organise myself and develop an entire magazine. Key modules include: writing and presenting the news both online and print, law and ethics, feature writing and magazine journalism. 

Editorial Internships

Shortlist.com
August 2016 (2 weeks)
I was working for the online team of Shortlist Magazine and developed my skills at writing articles for a consumer title when producing content for immediate release online.
• Creating content for the website: including news articles, tend pieces and galleries
• Researching different articles and stories from a wide range of sources

Northern and Shell
August 2016 (2 weeks)
Working with the Sunday supplements for the Sunday Express and Sunday Star. I mainly worked for S magazine but also did tasks from Big TV and Hot TV.
• Transcribing of dictated interviews
• Attending press screenings and taking interview notes
• Subbing and proofreading
• Order returns and organising the fashion closet.

Rapid News Communications
May 2014 – June 2014 (5 weeks)
I did a five-week placement at Rapid News and I was working for five of their business-to-business magazines. The content I was writing about was challenging. However, this was an exciting opportunity to write about the content I was not familiar with. My main responsibilities were:
• Writing from press releases and sourcing photographs
• Managing websites and uploading content to the different sites
• Finding exclusive quotes and contacting companies about their products.

YouTube and Blogging

YouTube Partner
April 2012 – March 2020
I have been posting for five years and grown a following of 42,000 subscribers and over 16 million views. I manage all aspects of the channel including:
• Video production like scripting, filming, and editing
• Promoting and sharing on social media to produce more followers and views
• Using cross-platforming promotion across social media
• Understanding my audience and making content that suits them and being on brand
• Working with companies on outreach programmes
• Attending workshops and events at YouTube Space London
• Being part of panels at events, such as MCM Comic Con in October 2017.

Charity Work

Glass Door
Volunteering at a homeless shelter one evening a week during the winter, where I help serve food and talk with the guests who come in for food and shelter.

The Little Princess Trust
I have donated my hair twice to the charity that takes the hair and makes wigs to give to sick children who have lost their hair through an illness like cancer.

University

MA Magazine Journalism (Grade: Merit)
University of Central Lancashire 2015-2016
NCTJ and PPA accredited course that focuses mainly on magazine production including two group magazines, a business, and a consumer, and I was editor-in-chief of the business magazine and digital editor for the user. During this course, I also learnt about the law and responsibilities of being a journalist, how to write hard news and how to use new media and how to tell a story in a variety of ways. As well as learning Teeline shorthand that I worked to 80 words a minute.
Key modules include shorthand (Teeline), creating content, digital journalism, specialist writing, newsroom practice, law for journalists and public affairs.

Work completed during the year can be seen here

My final project, TEAL Magazine, can be viewed here

BA (Hons) Journalism with Creative Writing (Grade 2:1)

University of Chester 2012-2015
During this three-year course, I learnt the foundations of journalism and how to work with others but mainly how to organise myself and develop an entire magazine on my own.
Key modules include: writing and presenting the news both online and print, law and ethics, feature writing and magazine journalism.

Work completed during the year can be seen here

New job: reporter.

Quick bullet points before I elaborate:

I was offered and accepted a job as a Reporter for HVP and BMN magazine.

I have been in the job for three months, and I have now moved down to London.

So, after nearly 200 applications and nine months after finishing my Masters, I finally got the job I wanted.I work for two magazines Heating, Ventilation and Plumbing and Builders’ Merchants News. I do a huge variety of tasks during the day from writing, design, social media and subbing.

I am only three months into the job, so I know that I will be developing a lot in the next coming months as everything with the magazines start to become second nature.

Aside from my job the move to London has been a significant change. Aside from the water tasting disgusting and everything being expensive I feel that I have settled into the city well.

I have also been heavily involved with the London YouTube community by attending events, gatherings, and Summer in the City. The initial awkwardness of the newness of the city has gone, and I am starting to feel very settled.

I have also finally got used to working a 9-5:30 but the work – work balance between my job and YouTube / my brand has been hard to balance. I may have cracked that now and I’m starting to settle into a pattern.

I have a lot of goals for the next few months that I will share publically when I achieve them, but for now, I am finally in the place I want to be, and I am looking to push on forward.

That’s all for now,

Vicki

Teal Magazine

A few months back I started to make Teal magazine for my final project of my Master’s degree and here is the final thing.

All work, design, copy, and interviews are mine. The majority of the photography is mine too however, some of the photos are not but they are all credited on the inside bottom of each page. Adverts have no copyright clearance and are stated as such.

The theme for the magazine would be a travel and food magazine that is for people who love to experience new things but don’t have the disposable income to do so.

It is mainly for the younger market who are not so freely catered to in the travel and food magazine industry so there is a huge target market who are waiting for this type of magazine.

The PDF can be found here: Teal magazine final

The business plan and media pack can be seen here: Teal magazine business plan

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Reflection Magazine Photoshoots

Reflection Magazine Makeup Shoot

 

For Reflection Magazine I needed to do a photoshoot to show some festival makeup looks.

I chose my beautiful friend Beth to be my model and these are the photos that I came up with. I also did the makeup itself, edited and took the photos myself as well.

This was a great shoot to do as it was very simplistic with the white background but this just highlights the makeup itself. It also fits better in the magazine as it was next to very dark pages so the white background balances out the pages.

If thinking about the shoot without the context of the magazine I would have liked to do a festival background or some kind of natural setting to highlight the looks.

Also, colour correcting and highlights were changed but there was no photoshopping in terms of editing out any blemishes. This was to keep with the tone of the magazine.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.


Reflection Magazine Fashion Shoot

 

This is the second photo shoot that I did for Reflection Magazine. This was a simple work day look that could be worn in the city. My model was Mary who at the time was my housemate.

This was a great shoot to do, as it was done in Chester in Rufus Court very early in the morning to make sure that there were no people around.

The outfits I style and I used pieces from my wardrobe and Mary’s. The main aim was to produce a shoot where every piece and outfit flowed from one to the other. The main theme was red, white or blue so each outfit had those colours in there in some way.

Matching items from the shoes to the lipstick was also key here as it brought the whole look together.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Teal magazine business plan and media pack

I already showed you the basics of my MA magazine project and what it is going to be, but now I can show you a lot more and share with you the business plan and the media pack for the project. This goes into a lot more detail about the different areas I have covered and thought about when it comes to this magazine.

When the magazine has been marked I will upload it, I may post little sneak peaks as well to show how the magazine is progressing.

teal logo rectangle

 

 

Teal magazine Media pack

 

TEAL, which stands for travel, eating and living, will be about travel and food with lifestyle pieces designed for millennials with a lower income who want to travel and experience new things.

 

TEAL is a monthly consumer magazine and is priced at £2.50 per issue.

 

Target Audience

The target market is the younger generation who wants to travel and experience new food and see amazing places but are not able to do so as they do not have a lot of disposable money. The age bracket will be 18-30 who are DC2C1B but will aim to be in the ABC1 demographic.

The magazine will be intelligent because 47% of all 17-30 year-olds in the UK, according to the GOV department of Business, Innovation and Skills, have attended some form of higher education in 2014. So despite the lower income bracket there will still be articles suited for intelligent people as they have been to university.

There is also a tend that Millennials would more rather spend their money on ‘experiences’ and holidays rather than owning things. Eventbrite, showed this in a survey in 2014, that 3 in 4 millennials would more rather spend money on experiences than save money. This is linked to the Fear of Missing Out, FOMO, feeling which was increased with social media. Millennials would go to an event because they don’t like seeing others on social media having a good time and not being included. The magazine will use this and promote experience more than material things.

The survey that was taken shows that the majority would love to travel yet do not have enough money and would like to find ways to save money and not have the FOMO.

 

Reader Profile

Emily is twenty-five-year-old and graduate with degree in business management. She is working in the city for a large business firm. She lives in a small rented apartment because she wants to save up for travelling and eating out with her friends. She regularly uses social media to document her life and loves reading bloggers and seeing other people’s experiences.

Emily

 

Editorial

The magazine will be split in to four sections: travel, food, features and regulars.

Each month there will be a place or a country that the magazine will focus on. This will be the main cover photo and will also be in the centre of the magazine as well. The three-page article will have details about the country in terms of what to do as a tourist but also focus on the culture and history of the place. Then there will be three pages after dedicated to the food of the country.

There will also be sections for cheep holidays or UK based place to travel as an affordable option. Also some of the food articles will be about how to create food from the other side of the world with the view that even if you cannot travel there you can still experience the food.

With the millennial demographic which TEAL is trying to hit will mean that interviewees about food and travel will be more from the blogger and YouTuber community rather than the classic route of chefs that most food magazines take. Technology and apps will also feature as well as parts about photography as the target audience would love to photograph certain aspects of their lives.

There will be a section of the magazine that will be topical and uses current events or hard-hitting topics as a talking point. Most of this will be opinion based and cover things like culture, politics and things to keep in mind when travelling around the world.

For a break down of the first magazine and the flat plan with proposed articles:

Teal, UCLan, Flat Plan

The style of the magazine will be very minimal with big white spaces giving it a sleek modern look. The colours pop of each page will be from the photos of that article so the colours and photos all merge in to one.

The magazine will be printed on A4 using a matt uncoated paper and will be 70gsm. This will keep the cost down and make it more accessible to people.

 

Research and survey

We carried out a survey on Survey Monkey at: http://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/XDDWB8S and was taken by 43 people. This was to give an idea of what our target audience would want to see from our magazine.

 

The Competition

Current travel magazines like Food and Travel and Wonderlust tend to focus on expensive luxury holidays and dining experiences that is not really attainable for 18-30 year olds who are just starting out in working life.

Food magazines like Olive, Good Food, and Delicious also are aimed at the higher end of the market with the foods that are featured and the chefs that are interviewed.

The magazines in both food and travel sectors tend to aim towards to ABC1 demographic with a higher income. They are possible for millennials to read but more as aspirational than attainable. TEAL intends to show experiences that are possible for anyone living on a budget.

The competition for online food and travel websites is huge with a mix of both professionals and bloggers meaning there is a flooded market to do with food and travel. However the magazine will help bring in brand loyalty with the cross-platforming elements of the magazine to the website. They will promote each other to make the readers be interested in both aspects of the brand.

 

Social media and online content

With the target reader ­being so active on social media, like the survey shows, there needs to be a high presence on social media. The website and social media platforms will follow the same philosophy of the print magazine but they will include multimedia pieces including video.

The social media will include: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

YouTube will be the main format for video productions. These will have longer, in-depth videos about travel destinations and recipes. Shorter recipe videos with just background music will appear on Instagram and Facebook, as this is more common for these formats.

The website will host more recipes than the magazine. From the survey we found that the readers will go to Internet for recipes more than a magazine or a cookbook. So there will be an archive catalogue of recipes both in video and written from.

Social media like Facebook and Twitter will be mainly used to push out content from the website and video platforms. Instagram will be heavily used but focus on just food and travel aspects with minimal captions that just give a snapshot of a particular place or food.

 

Circulation and readership strategy

For the first three months of the brands life there will be no print magazine. There will be an emphasis on online aspects and building up a relationship with the readers though social media and the website. After the three months the magazine will launch. This will mean that people will want to buy the physical magazine as they already have loyalty through the website and social media.

We aim to have a circulation of around 33,000 within the first year of the print magazine being published. The magazine will be sold in the newsstands.

There will also be a cross-platforming strategy by using the print magazine to promote the digital and the digital to tease content that will appear in the magazine or provide a different format to a piece in the magazine through a multimedia production. Promoting each other like this will make the reader engage with both digital and online articles.

 

Brand Extensions

The brand extensions for TEAL will mainly be a show that will be held annually that will cover both food and travel aspects.

Speakers we will choose if they already have a fan base so that they can drive people towards the show; this will include bloggers or high influencers on social media. This will mean there will be both TEAL readers and those who follow the speakers who will bring more people to the brand.

Over first few years, after there have been a considerable amount of recipes and travel locations featured, there will be development of a food and travel book that feature the locations and cuisine explored in the magazine in more depth.

 

Subscription

There will be a subscription service available for readers that will offer the magazine at a cheaper rate with a complementary digital download.

Time frame Price Price Per Issue Discount
6 months £9 £1.50 40% off
12 months £15 £1.25 50% off
24 months £24 £1 60% off

 

Advertising

The advertising will be a split between middle to high price products. The majority of the food and travel related adverts will be more at the mid-ranged price with travel companies or websites like Air B&B or hostels. As well as food companies such as Tesco or supermarket products being featured as well.

However we will target higher rated items to do with technology such as cameras, phones, and laptops, which are an expense that millennials are willing to pay out for. We also aim to keep the adverts gender neutral as the target market involves all genders.

The high-end advertisers will want to advertise because it will help people become familiar with the brand so even if the reader cannot afford to pay for those products they would be aspirational products.

There will also be advertising in the website and through sponsorship deals to promote and review products or destinations on social media.

 

%d bloggers like this: