Five Minutes with Jamie Coelho, Online Editor at Boston Magazine

Q. What is your average week is like?
I arrive at the office, and filter through about 50-100 emails every day. I file away important ones, and delete ones that I cannot use. Then I plan my four newsletters that I create each week. The Restaurant Club goes out on Wednesdays, and includes blog entries about restaurants, dining event blurbs, and a restaurant slide show. I create content for all of those features, writing about restaurant openings and trends, compiling interactive features involving the best places to dine, depending on the season, and tracking down the best dining events for the week.

On Thursdays, we send out The Weekender newsletter, and for this one, I create a slide show out of the top 10 events for the weekend. I research and write all the copy, and gather the images from businesses and public relations professionals.

On Fridays, we send out our Shop Talk newsletter, which will be redesigned for December, and will be called Bostonista. This newsletter includes style and beauty news, events, sales, fashion slide shows, and party pics from events around town. We also have a blog, called Bostonista, where all of the content will be posted.

On Fridays, we also send out our Restaurant Reservations newsletter, which contains available tables at popular restaurants for the weekend.

In between all of this, I also prepare special events slide shows around holidays, including New Year's Eve, holiday activities, Valentine's Day, Super Bowl, Mother's Day, Father's Day, 4th of July etc.

I also produce and upload interactive magazine content, which involves loading articles, slide shows, and other features from the monthly issue. And I also work with local PR professionals and photographers to gather images taken at the hottest events in the city.

Q. What kinds of things do you cover and which ones most interest you?
I cover Boston entertainment, dining, fashion, weddings, and travel. All of these areas interest me, and I divide my time between all of them. Not only do I write for online, but I also contribute to the print publications, Boston magazine, Boston Weddings, Boston Home, and New England Travel.

Q: Do you have a story/article you’re most proud of?
I am most proud of my work on the Chowder food blog.

I have learned a lot about dining trends in Boston, and the type of language to use when reviewing a restaurant. I am also most proud of a Thanksgiving Dinner slide show I recently compiled for the holiday. I communicated with 27 different restaurants in town to get their menus, and write about the different courses being served.

Q: How is the economy and the changing media landscape affecting print publications? What is Boston Magazine doing differently to adapt?
Boston magazine is experiencing a decrease in both newsstand and subscription sales. That has caused myself and our editors to restrain from releasing all of our print magazine content on the web. Recently, we have been holding back from putting the major features from the monthly on the web, and we will only release that content on the website when the month has passed. It's an experiment, and we will see how it affects magazine sales. Much of our website is original, web-exclusive content, so our readers do not only come to our site for the magazine content.

Q. How much of what you run every day comes from public relations suggestions and how much from your own scouting?
I look forward to receiving releases from PR contacts, and I use a great deal of the pitches. However, all of my pitches must be locally based, and have some kind of Boston connection. I mostly work with local businesses, and national products are tough to fit into the content I produce. I also spend half of my time scouting my own leads, by reading newspapers and websites, like the Herald, Globe, and Boston.com; magazines like The Improper, Stuff, Fashion Boston, and reading blogs like Universal Hub, Grub Street, Bostonist. etc.

Q. What is the best way for a PR professional to pitch you?
I prefer to be contacted by email. I usually file away these emails until I can use the content. But if a PR contact does not hear back from me, it is okay to follow up with me again. Sometimes things get lost in the mix because I get an unbelievable amount of email. Also, do not be offended if I do not reply back, it is near impossible to respond to all emails, but if I do in fact use your pitch,  I will make every effort to email a link to the piece once it is finished.

I do not usually like to be contacted by phone. When I take the call, I completely lose track of what I was trying to complete before the phone rang. Also, you never know who is calling, so this often leads to screening the phone calls and letting it go to voicemail. Almost every journalist I know screens because of unwanted calls coming in. But if we already have a personal relationship, I do enjoy getting personable calls. I also enjoy getting to know the PR professionals I work with, at events, or over lunch or coffee. If you are at an event and see me there, come up to me and say hi!

Q. What is the most inappropriate thing a public relations person has ever done in pitching you?
I got a call from someone who had a pitch for me. The pitch really did not fit into any of the content areas that we work in, so I told them I was sorry, but we did not have a place for it. They did not take no for an answer and asked repeatedly who else they could speak to. Like, who is the food editor, what is their phone number, etc. It makes it very awkward for me when they ask for my coworkers contact info, when I already told them the pitch will not work for Boston magazine.

By Jennifer George, Cone