Journalist Spotlight: Theo Bosanquet, WhatsOnStage

An interview with Theo Bosanquet, managing editor at theatre website WhatsOnStage. Theo gives us an insight into the life of a website editor, the challenge of keeping up with an “ever-changing digital landscape”, creative PRs and meeting David Beckham.

What does a typical day at work involve? My mornings are usually spent uploading coverage from the previous night’s openings and writing up any breaking news. Theatre stories tend to break in batches so you can often find you’re up to your eyeballs with very little notice. I’m regularly out interviewing over lunch or during the afternoon, and we have a weekly editorial conference to reflect on traffic figures and plan our forward features. Otherwise I tend to be at my desk working through emails and stories. Evenings are often spent at the theatre, so it’s a pretty all-encompassing job.

What do you most enjoy about your job? Are there any particular highlights or challenges you can share? Undoubtedly the chance to write about theatre, a subject I’m passionate about, is the major highlight. That and the opportunity to see a lot of it as well, though I don’t see as much as I used to since becoming a dad 18 months ago. There aren’t many drawbacks really, though as I mentioned it can be quite all-encompassing. In terms of challenges, like any website editor I have to try and keep pace with the ever-changing digital landscape. Often you’ve just got to grips with one social media network or app when a new one comes along and renders it redundant.

How does WhatsOnStage stand out from other theatre publications? How do you engage your audience? Our primary USP is that we write for theatregoers, rather than for the theatre industry or for a more general readership. So we combine specialist knowledge with an accessible approach. Recently we’ve introduced more ‘listicle’ features and quizzes in an effort to make our content more digestible and engaging, and we’ve significantly increased the amount of video content we produce as well. We’ve enjoyed a big growth in traffic in recent months thanks to this approach; but we’re always learning lessons and there’s always room for improvement.

How big a role does social media play in your work? Huge. When I started in the job seven years ago social media was still in its infancy, and we didn’t spend much time thinking about it. But it’s become absolutely paramount. We now get more traffic from social channels than anything else, thanks largely to our healthy Twitter and Facebook community (we have over 150k followers in total). We’ve also recently been focusing more on networks such as Instagram and Vine in a mission to broaden our readership. It’s interesting how these various sites serve different purposes and demographics; part of the challenge is working out which ones matter to us and which ones don’t.

How do you work with PRs? What tips would you give to PRs in order to create better working relationships? I work very closely with a number of PRs, and hugely value their work. They’re usually my primary contact on a production, whether I’m arranging interviews or negotiating exclusive stories. I’d say the key to a good PR is a combination of strong organisation skills and also a willingness to be creative. In a climate where the news agenda changes every hour, the challenge is working out how best to serve up the information in a way that will interest readers. For example, a short, sharp video clip can have a much bigger impact than an in-depth profile interview, but the reverse can also be true. The skill for both PRs and editors is choosing the right approach.

What does the future hold for WhatsOnStage? Where would you like to take the website? The future is looking very rosy if we can continue growing our readership at the current rate. Later in the year we’re going to be significantly expanding our range of coverage by launching sections dedicated to dance, comedy and cabaret, which is really exciting. Our strapline is ‘the UK’s leading theatre website’, and we want to consolidate that position in the coming months and years.

Photo by Theo’s WhatsOnStage colleague Peter Gibbons