Journalist Spotlight: Ursula Dewey

Ursula Dewey is the new fashion and beauty editor of http://www.sofeminine.co.uk/, one of the largest online women’s magazines in the UK with 558,000 monthly unique users.

Ursula says: “I will be focusing on affordable fashion, style inspiration, launches, new labels and get the look features. I will also be focusing on the latest beauty launches, discovering new trends, and educating our readers about the ingredients, products and treatments which really do deliver results.

“We have a very active forum of women who are interested in cosmetic surgery so more features about the treatments and how to navigate the controversial world of cosmetic surgery will be on the cards.” Ursula will also be responsible for the content of the fashion and beauty pages and their subsections, as well as co-ordinating freelancers, reaching out to bloggers and finding new ways to make online fashion and beauty content engaging, innovative and informative.

sofeminine’s readers are UK-wide and therefore fashion and beauty stories have to be relevant to all readers, regardless of location. “Fashion and beauty features with a celebrity angle are always welcome, as are copycat fashion/beauty pitches and competition opportunities for fashion and beauty vouchers/products or treatments. I always like to receive client lists and news from agencies and their clients, and try to have early morning face to face meetings with PR agencies as often as possible to touch base and get a more hands-on experience of the agency and their clients.”

Ursula likes to receive pitches via email outlining the story and with a low resolution image to illustrate it. “A clear and relevant subject line always helps an email to stand out. Our readers are aged between 25-45, they’re inspirational and young at heart, professional and stylish but on a budget – pitches for women outside of this age bracket are less than likely to make it onto the page. They want to be able to imitate the latest trends and beauty looks without having to spend their savings, for us it’s about making the glamour of fashion and beauty real and accessible.”

A Vogue Talent Contest finalist, Ursula has contributed to regional titles and consumer magazines such as Natural Health and LOOK. After graduating from Sussex University Ursula undertook internships, including stints at Condé Nast’s contracts department: “I helped out across a range of contracted titles for The Connaught, Claridge’s and The Berkeley, working on their in-house magazines on the fashion and beauty pages and assisting at GQ and Vogue International. I’ve also worked in beauty PR, at Liz Earle Naturally Active Skincare, have freelanced and set up my award winning online beauty magazine, www.Jolie.co.uk.”

With London Fashion Week around the corner, Ursula is looking forward to attending Nicole Farhi and John Rocha: “Their shows are always clean and well conceived. I always look forward to seeing the latest talent at Vauxhall Fashion Scout too, I’m a fan of Krystof Strozyna but I also find the attendees just as interesting as the catwalk clothes – people really make an effort to be more creative during fashion weeks. It’s a very inspiring time.”

As a journalist, Ursula feels attending events gives a great overview of the industry and provides inspiration about the upcoming seasons. “They offer the opportunity to connect with all sorts of people within the fashion and beauty sector while showcasing a fusion of talent and creativity which makes you proud to be a part of the fashion and beauty machine.”

Editorial information on Ursula Dewey along with thousands of other media contacts and websites, can be found in our CisionPoint media database.

Also see our London Fashion Week 2012 media rankings, which consist of Top 10 UK Fashion Blogs, Top 10 UK Fashion Blogs on Twitter and Top 10 UK Fashion Magazines. http://bit.ly/LondonFashionWeek2012MediaRankings