Editor aims at local stories for national appeal
Kate Nelson tells of the surprises and rewards of being editor of a lifestyle magazine.
By Makenzi Johnson
Kate Nelson grew up reading magazines like Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and more. From reading those, she knew she wanted to be a journalist, specifically in magazines. After graduating from college with a degree in journalism, doing several internships and some freelance work for various publications, she ended up at Artful Living Magazine. With a small yet mighty team of 10, Artful Living is a Twin Cities-based quarterly magazine that holds national appeal.
Nelson started at Artful Living 11 years ago as copy editor, then moved her way up to executive editor, and now serves as the magazine’s editor in chief. As editor in chief, Nelson says it allows her to wear several hats all while doing what she loves.
Q: What are your responsibilities as an editor?
A: I am responsible for overseeing how the magazine comes together. It’s a quarterly publication, and it’s a large, oversized glossy magazine. It’s sort of a coffee table book almost. I see that through from the beginning of the “ideation” all the way through to when we send it off to the printer. I also oversee our digital platforms, and then I manage some others on our team.
Q: What does a typical work day look like for you?
A: It can really vary because we are as small as we are. It’s an all-hands-on-deck mentality, which is nice because then there’s a lot of variety. And so what that might mean is I could be out at a photo shoot on any given day, or I could be working with the writer figuring out how to elevate or shape a story.
I still do the copy editing, so I might be copy editing content, looking at layouts, working with our senior team to figure out what the strategic vision is for the magazine and the company moving forward. There’s a lot of variety which means that I’m never bored; there’s always something new and exciting to keep you interested and engaged.
Q: What are some of the good and bad parts of your job as editor in chief?
A: We very much are a small business, so you wear a lot of hats. Everyone on our team gets to work on many more different facets of the business than those in a 200-person company. This means that you are constantly learning and experiencing new things, but it can be a lot to manage.
There’s the concern that readers get their entertainment, their news, whatever might be keeping them busy during the day from so many different sources. And it’s not always traditional media outlets, right? A lot of that is social media these days. So on the one hand, it can be a little worrisome that you have so many different types of media to compete with. On the other hand, I think it’s caused media outlets to adapt.
I think it’s exciting to see where things go; it’s not nearly as fast moving as people think. There’s this idea of pretty soon no one will want to read anything in print, and we’ll do everything on a screen. That’s not necessarily the case as we’ve seen. That’s something that is a little stressful, but it’s also exciting about where the industry is headed because that means we get to help shape the industry to be more inclusive, more diverse and elevate all sorts of different voices and stories.
Q: How do you and your team decide which stories are worth investing in as a lifestyle publication?
A: We don’t want to just do what someone else is doing. We want to bring our audience a different story, a different angle, something that they can’t get elsewhere. What’s great about being a lifestyle publication is that we get to span all areas of lifestyle — arts and culture, style, wellness, beauty, travel, home, design, and even some things like history, scandal, crime. Because we’re quarterly, we can’t tell the same stories that a daily newspaper does. And our stories need to have a three-month shelf life, so things don’t feel like old news. This helps us tailor our content.
We want it to appeal to our audience here in Minnesota, but also for those online readers, because a lot of our print content does go on to our website. We want to tell a story that interests someone in New York or Los Angles as well. We try to tell stories that haven’t been covered in a certain way before to make sure that we’re contributing to a conversation and not just repeating what someone else is doing. That means that there are lots of stories that aren’t the stories for us to tell. And that’s totally fine because we know that they will be told really well by other media outlets.
Q: What have been some of your favorite moments over the course of the 11 years at Artful Living?
A: I’ve always been a storyteller. And that’s what I realized really mattered to me. Growing up in rural Minnesota, reading magazines, I could learn about what was going on across the country, across the world, maybe in a really interesting article in Marie Claire, that made an impact on me. That’s something that I then wanted to be able to do. And through the years we have told so many different stories — some of them really inspiring; some of them heartbreaking and touching. What keeps me always coming back is the ability to tell those stories.
Q: What advice would you give to students interested in a career in editing?
A: Don’t be afraid to take a nontraditional path. The path that worked 20 years ago is different from the path that worked 10 years ago, and it’s different from the path that works right now…. It’s not enough to just be a naturally talented writer. You have to be really driven; you have to understand the business side of things as well because that’s going to make you a much more valuable asset to any company.
I think the more that you can set yourself apart from others by having a specialty or expertise in different areas, whether you are a writer, an editor or a photographer, the more it will differentiate you. And lastly, it’s hard work. It’s really hard work…. But, you get through those more challenging days and you understand that it’s all part of a bigger picture.
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Nelson will continue to lead the staff of Artful Living to tell stories that have never been told; this is what she loves to do.
