Terri White, Editor-in-Chief of Empire, joins us for the second instalment of the BSME Live! In Conversation With series. The 2019 BSME Award winner chats to Grazia’s Hattie Brett to discuss her career to date, as well as her new emotive memoir Coming Undone.
10 Things We Learnt
Summarised by Joe Gallop
BA (Hons) Journalism & English Language, University of Roehampton. 2016-2019 – Upper Second-Class Honours.
In our second BSME LIVE! In Conversation With session, Terri White, Editor-in-Chief of Empire, joined Hattie Brett, Editor of Grazia UK, to discuss the industry, life as a magazine editor and Terri’s new book Coming Undone.
1. Be prepared to adapt in difficult circumstances: Over lockdown, Terri and the Empire team widened their world, to reflect the difficult period: “We don’t usually really engage with politics or anything happening in the outside world. But we knew we have to engage with this - it was affecting every single one of our readers.” While no films were being released, productions were halted and cinemas were shuttered, Terri and the team decided to take the brand back to “Empire’s DNA” - which at its very heart, is a celebration of film in its all guises. The Empire promise is to bring you closer to the films and filmmakers, and so Empire used its relationships with and direct access filmmakers to create several concept issues included the movie playlist put together by Hollywood, a Celebration of Cinema issue and a Film Heroes Celebration.
2. Publishing in a pandemic <can> bring new opportunities : Hattie shared Terri’s positive outlook on the situation and said: “It’s been a scary, challenging time, but when you have to rip it up and start again, it comes with some sort of freedom to a certain extent.” Terri added, “I think it’s been an amazing opportunity for editors, and for all magazines really.” She spoke of the opportunities that brings to try different things and her belief that the time of greatest challenge, should be the time that you try new things. She cited her most recent cover with Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman – Empire’s first tribute cover in their 31-year history - saying this was something she couldn’t have foreseen Empire doing a year ago, with the film slate so heavily driving the cover strategy.
3. Form a relationship with readers and understand your audience: Empire has incredibly loyal readers, with most subscribers being with the magazine for more than ten years. Those readers also migrate to other areas of the brand and many listen to the Empire podcast or subscribe to the Spoiler Specials podcasts. “That kind of relationship has great depth and real emotion at the heart of it. We know how engaged (our audience) are and their depth of knowledge,” Terri said. It’s that what drives what they do across their platforms.
4. Be honest in reviews, but positive elsewhere: Empire also knows that their audience appreciates honesty - you’re telling them which film to go a see, but more importantly how to spend their time and money - and they are not afraid to give out a one-star review if necessary. “Without that impartiality and integrity, our relationship with the reader doesn’t exist,” said Terri. “When it comes to features, we only cover films that we are really excited about. We would never do something negative in features because Empire is there to celebrate film. But with reviews, we have to be honest. Any other approach wouldn’t benefit us or the studios, who come to us because of that relationship with the audience.”
5. There’s still power in magazine covers: Terri spoke about how she was inspired by Hattie’s NHS Grazia magazine cover - and that a great cover still makes for a lasting impact - whether on newsstand, digital editions or special subscription covers. “The best covers are visceral and make you feel something. People buy with their hearts, not their heads,” she said.
6. The brand must be authentic on each platform: Empire is much more than a magazine, but also has a podcast, website, and huge social channels, and Terri sees this as a crucial part of their outreach, but also for deepening their audience’s relationship with Empire. “For me iIt’s all about approaching it as a proper, true brand, instead of seeing it by product or by platform,” she said. “The brand has to have the same qualities and DNA - and have the same values, no matter where you are - whether it’s on Instagram or the print magazine. The content execution will be different and suited to the platform, but the voice, what you stand for, must be the same.”
7. If you want to write a book, knuckle down and write it: Terri’s hugely successful book Coming Undone explores her time in New York, when her mental health was deteriorating, and she was sectioned despite being at the peak of her career as editor-in-chief of Time Out New York. For Terri, her memoir was a book she needed to write and the challenge balancing this with her job as Editor-in-Chief of Empire. She made personal sacrifices including not going out at the weekend for 6 months and writing whenever she had a spare minute. “In the end you just write wherever you can - on the tube, when you’re eating” she said. “But the lesson I learnt was just to write the bloody thing.”
8. Don’t be afraid to talk about mental health: Terri admitted her fears of being judged, or even fired, when the book was published and the extent of her mental health issue were known. But she felt it was important to share. “I thought there was something very powerful in having a senior job and being honest about my mental health while still in that job. To say to people that being successful at work doesn’t mean you don’t have mental health issues, it just means maybe people aren’t talking about them publicly.”
9. A good editor shows empathy: Terri said how she originally felt she had to be “hard as nails” in an editor’s role but found she became a better editor once she was true to herself. “I realised that actually what I enjoyed was nurturing and mentoring people and helping them to achieve everything they’ve wanted to achieve and do great things in magazines,” she said. It also helps on the page, she says: “To tell a story well you need empathy.”
10. We all need to help make the media more diverse: Terri spoke passionately of what she feels should change in journalism, such as the “incredible lack of representation in magazines generally”, and the issues of unpaid work experience, which favours people from higher income families. She used her own career as an example of how people from all walks of life should be given opportunities. “One of my problems was that I had massive imposter syndrome, which I think was because I was a working class girl.” she said – before sharing details of mentor schemes Empire are involved with and finishing with a rallying call, “I think we (as editors) have a responsibility to find and help the next generation of journalists.”
