How to Pitch Lauren Indvik, Editor in Chief of Fashionista

Fashionista is our go-to source for fashion industry news and commentary.  We are delighted to feature an interview with Lauren Indvik, who recently joined the team as the site’s Editor in Chief!

Name: Lauren Indvik
Title: Editor in Chief
Publication: Fashionista
Circulation: 1.8 million unique visitors/month
Email: lauren@fashionista.com

How do you prefer to receive pitches?

By email. I don’t mind if there’s a follow up on Twitter.

How far in advance do you work?

Sometimes a month ahead, sometimes 20 minutes!

What is the best time to send pitches?

Anytime before 6pm. It’s very likely anything sent at the end of the workday will get so far buried I won’t see it the next day.

What types stories/pitches are you looking for?

Exclusives from companies our readers care about, particularly with a good business/industry angle, and personal essays, like this one from Meredith Hattam about her experiences working as a model in China.

Writers have different passion areas — we do a lot around the intersection of fashion, technology and digital media; the plus-size market; the modeling industry; fashion and beauty marketing; and emerging fashion talent.

What makes a great pitch?

It’s always very clear how well the person pitching knows us — the best have a sense of what we’ll respond to and who in particular will respond to it, because they read the site. In general, I prefer pitches that are succinct and include images, which often get the point across much more quickly than a written pitch will.

If you are interested, what do you need to move forward?

That totally depends on the story, but we like to do phone (never email!) interviews for as many stories we cover as possible.

What is the best way for a publicist to build a relationship with you?

Read the site, and only pitch what they have a sense will be of interest. There are some people who know us so well that I open and respond to every one of their pitches, because I know they will be relevant.

What is a guarantee that a publicist will never hear back from you?

I probably don’t respond to 90 or 95 percent of the pitches we get — in that pile are mostly broad email blasts and items that are totally irrelevant for the site (having come from Mashable, I still get pitched from a lot of tech PR lists). Also, there is no need to follow up more than once.

Photo Credit: f_lynx