Meet Lucy Aspden, a young journalist for the Telegraph Ski and Snowboard Magazine in London.
I came across her work while interning at SKI Magazine last summer, and I was amazed at how she had made it from intern to editor in only a few years, and how she always seemed to be one of the first to cover something that popped up in the ski world. So I asked Lucy if I could pick her brain about her success at the intersection of journalism and skiing. I asked her eleven questions (and a few follow-ups) about how she got where she was- and the eleventh answer is her advice to us.
CA (me): What’s your journalism background and what’s your skiing background, and how did you tie them together?
LA (Lucy Aspden): I did an undergrad degree in English Literature in Lancaster and when it came to my final year, I knew I wanted to go into media and journalism. It’s kind of a tough industry to get into, so I got a Master’s degree in journalism at University of Lancashire (UCLan) which included a qualification from the National Council for the Training of Journalists. A bit later, I got a message from one of my tutors, who knew I was a skier, and he told me about this internship I might like at the Telegraph Ski and Snowboard Magazine.
I never thought I’d work in the ski industry, though. I’d been skiing since I was about 11 with my friends and family in the Alps, but I never did a ski season because I chose to go to university instead. Working in such a small niche just came around by coincidence. You have to have a passion for what you write about, and my two passions collided.
CA: What is the culture and a typical day like working where you do?
CA: What are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned from working with Telegraph, from interning to where you are now?
LA: One of them would be to always say yes to new opportunities. Don’t be put off if something seems quite daunting, because it’ll help you in the long run. I also learned to make friends with the people you work with; teams here are quite small and tight knit, so you need to get on with your teams. There’s a lot to do, so understanding your coworkers and knowing when to back off is a really good skill. And then just enjoying what you're doing is big; I’m always grateful to the place I’m in. I know so many journalists who would love to work at the Telegraph, so every time I go into the office, I think about my first day, and just feel really grateful to be where I am.
CA: What were your biggest challenges along the way to where you are now?
LA: Sending tweets from the chairlift! You know, when it’s really cold and you’re just trying to
spell everything right and not drop your phone. Seriously, though, it can be challenging to get
your ideas across, to prove to someone you can do this, that it’s a good idea. You’ve just got
to stick to it and have a clear goal and know your facts—I go in with some statistics, something
to back up my idea. I don’t just say, “Trust me,” I bring examples from other people who’ve
done what I’m trying to do.
CA: Is there a certain type of person or personality that fits best at the Telegraph
Ski and Snowboard Magazine?
LA: I think we’re a pretty open team! We welcome everyone, you’ve just got to know how to
gave a good laugh and be really hard working, because there’s so much to do, even though we
write about it all year long. At the end of the day, we’re all skiers and snowboarders, as long as
you don’t mind working hard and playing hard.
CA: I’ve heard it said that young journalists need to be good at every aspect of journalism
nowadays- digital, editing, content, photos, video, social media, etc. As someone who
seems to have done most of that, what’s your perspective on this-is it true? Do you have
any advice for aspiring journalists who may be feeling a little overwhelmed?
LA: Yes, it’s totally true and it can be overwhelming, but if you get the basics right, like knowing what a good story is and where to find it and how to communicate it, the platform doesn’t matter. It just comes back to knowing the technicalities, but I don’t approach the stories differently. If I have to write an article for the magazine, website, and social media, I think about the three audiences, what story they want to hear, and how to get them that story. If I didn’t enjoy my job as much, I’d struggle to engage the audience, especially on social media, but if you have the core of the story then the next step is just putting yourself in your audience’s shoes to find out how best to deliver it.
CA: What are you passionate about?
LA: Skiing, social media, finding interesting ways to communicate with my audience. Podcasts are relatively new here in the UK, and video content also excites me. Social media and I have a love hate relationship; it can be frustrating because you feel like you’ve finally arrived and then Facebook goes and updates something else, but I also like the way it’s always adapting, and how I can instantly communicate with the audience. Like with Facebook live, you can see that audience engagement straight away.
CA: If you had any advice for someone inexperienced wanting to do what you did, what would it be?
LA: Always stay true to yourself and what you enjoy. Remind yourself of what you like doing and that will remind you of what all the hard work is worth. I do a lot more skiing than most people I know—I’m the envy of all my family and friends sometimes. And when I get out on the slopes, the first few turns remind me of why I love my job.
CA: I want to give readers some practical ideas. So I’m wondering, what was the application process like when you started out?
LA: My application process was my internship, so I started off right at the very bottom. I had to submit a video and answer the interview questions with that video, so I started off with a clip of me skiing, and added anecdotes about living in the mountains. Then I went for an assessment day with the Telegraph Media Group, where they narrowed it down from 300 to 5 people at assessment day. After that, I had to do a face to face interview, and I ended up being the only one picked. You have to tailor each application to the job that you’re going for—it’s about knowing about who you’re going to work for.
CA: Who has inspired you in your life?
LA: In terms of journalism, it’d be the big editors like Jo Elvin of Glamour magazine, who transformed the magazine when it wasn’t doing very well. There are a lot of women out there who show how far you can get, who really paved the way for this generation of girls.
CA: You made some transformation happen, too. How did you double the Telegraph Facebook page membership in just one season?
While I was doing my internship, I worked on all the platforms at once, and I was thinking, “Where is there a gap, what are they missing?” and I realized I could come in and work to grow their social media audience because it’s so important nowadays. My editors said "Yeah, Ok," so I began looking at what a lot of competitors were doing and mirrored what their successes were. I targeted actual skiers and snowboarders, thinking, “Ok, me as a skier, who do I want to talk to?”
Lucy with the host and judge of the Professional Publishers Association Digital Awards after winning Best Social Media Campaign of the Year in October, 2017
LA: Well, we work remotely sometimes, so we’re not usually there all at once. But when we’re at the office, the editorial team will meet at 10 to go over any new stories we’ve seen come in, then we’ll do a round of brainstorming and what’s going on in the print magazine, and I tend to do my writing in the morning. In the afternoon, I do a lot of evergreen content, updating what we already have and checking the snow forecasts. I get to do quite a bit of traveling, whether it’s for a hotel opening or when we host our own reader trips, where our readers get to go on holiday with us.
Lucy with her parents after her UCLan Master's graduation in December, 2014
Skiing in Samöens, part of France's Grand Massif ski area
There you have it, fellow skiers and writers. Lucy has combined two of her passions in a professional way, and we can learn a lot from how she's done it.
Here are my three key takeaways from the interview:
1. Find a need and fill it, just like Lucy did when deciding to grow the number of Telegraph Ski and Snowboard Facebook members. Providing value makes you valuable.
2. You have to get a little bit uncomfortable in order to grow. "When I got the internship at the Telegraph," Lucy said,"I had to move to London from the north. That was a big step for me."
3. Remember why you’re doing what you’re doing!