Meet the Journalist: The Semple Edit founder Maggie Semple
Maggie Semple OBE, founder of Semple magazine and The Semple Edit, discusses the latter’s launch, the difference between the two publications and how PRs can work with her team.
Can you provide a brief overview on The Semple Edit?
In 2012 we published our first Semple magazine and for the next five years, we presented thoughtful comment and beautiful images on topics pertinent to women.
As the readership of each magazine grew (Issue X had 1.5m views), so did our ambitions. In November 2017 we took a bold step: rather than focus on an even bigger magazine we decided to explore content inspired from our existing and future clients.
The Semple Edit tells stories about professional women’s loves, hopes and fears. Our strategy has worked as the Edit has had 3.7m views to date! We are currently planning our next Edit content to celebrate International Women’s Day in March.
How does it differ from Semple magazine?
The Semple Edit has a different tone to it. The content is created from the conversations we have with our audience and the themes reflect more their interests and concerns.
Also the Edit has shorter articles, fewer pages and the graphic design has been refreshed so that there is greater visual coherence across all of our social media platforms.
How does the magazine relate to the Semple brand?
There are three strands to Semple: the fashion collection, our events and our online publication. The magazine is essential to the Semple brand as it tells our story to a wider international audience.
It also provides the content for our window display as we have a large bow-fronted window in our beautiful atelier based in Covent Garden that visitors come to see.
What sort of content can be found in the magazine?
There are five articles in our first issue of The Semple Edit:
- A client who is the director of a museum in London shares her cultural must-sees
- We present a trend forecast based on our visit to Morocco
- A client has written an article on issues concerning ethics in the fashion industry, a topic we are concerned about
- We interviewed an industry innovator about the importance of customer experience
- Finally, one of our brand ambassadors gives her five tips for wellbeing
We like to think that we provide intelligent content and visually stimulating editorials.
Could you describe a typical Semple Edit reader?
We have profiled our typical reader and she is someone who is naturally curious, a professional senior leader in a business or owner of a company and is aged 35 and over. She understands the need to have – and the income to purchase – bespoke clothes.
She might be a senior partner in a law firm, a consultant surgeon, a banker, a brand in her own right. She will be an international player speaking in boardrooms, on stages and at private dinners.
We also have a secondary audience – men! They read our magazine to find out what women are commenting on.
What sort of topics does the Semple blog cover?
The Semple blog was launched in July 2010 and it is updated daily by a team of paid bloggers. Topics covered are on the latest fashion, beauty and lifestyle trends with our views expressed in a way to stimulate debate. The majority of our readers are from the UK, US, Hong King, Australia and Spain.
How much difference is there between the blog and the magazine?
There are three differences between the blog and our magazine. Firstly our blog content is written to attract a greater age range than the magazine. Secondly, the frequency of blog postings means that we can comment instantly to news items and thirdly, we use our blog posts to generate our social media content.
How would you describe your relationship with PRs?
We have always had a good relationship with PRs both here and abroad. We like to work in partnership through offering advertorials, advertising opportunities and social media engagement.
What’s the best way for them to pitch to the magazine?
The Semple Edit offers exclusive brand exposure to our dedicated readership. Our internal team of writers, designers and brand experts develop bespoke ideas to feature in the form of editorials, exclusive interviews and intelligent content.
Sophie Maguire ([email protected]) is our editor-in-chief and she welcomes contact from PRs.
Finally, if you could own one item from a luxury fashion brand, what would it be?
I would like to ‘own’ four hours of an established fashion designer’s time who would open up their black book and introduce me to others.
