Power Talk Friday – Ashley Hotham Cox: Why Regional Press is Important

Welcome to today’s episode! We are really happy to have Ashley Hotham Cox with us and she’s going to be a really hot topic on the show today!  Ashley comes with a significant level of experience. She used to be with Traditional Home and now she is the newly appointed editor-in-chief of Home Design & Decor. Listen in today to find out what Ashley has to share about promoting your design work through features in interior design magazines.      

Ashley is a long-time Charlotte local- with a twist. As a North Carolina native, she graduated from the University of South Carolina with a bachelor of arts degree in fashion and a master’s degree in journalism before earning her experience as a writer at Charlotte, Charlotte Wedding, and Charlotte Home & Garden magazines, and also as an editor at Traditional Home in New York. She is also a designer, having earned her certificate in interior design from the Parsons School of Design. Ashley returned home in 2016 to join the team of Home Design & Decor. Listen in now to find out more about how to pitch successfully, to be featured in design publications.

Show highlights:

• Ashley discusses the big differences between what she was doing at Traditional Home and what she’s doing now as an editor-in-chief at Home Design & Decor.
• Ashley discusses an overview of the editorial calendar and what she’s looking out for, and how this affects you, as designers.
• Finding the cut-off dates for specific features.
• What you can do if you miss the cut-off date for a certain feature to promote some work that you’ve done.
• Weighing up if you should publish on Instagram or not if you have missed a deadline.
• Everything is always subject to change in time.
• Becoming really familiar with a specific publication before pitching your work to them.
• Ashley discusses what her front-of-book looked like for last year.
• The exceptions to the rule of featuring new design projects only.
• The kind of pitch that really gets Ashley’s attention.
• What you need, in order to be considered for a magazine feature.
• Why you shouldn’t be discouraged if you get a ‘no’ from an editor.
• Photography is not cheap, so should you supply your own photos for a magazine feature, or not?
• Why you need to turn the lights off when taking pictures for a publication.
• Photographing interiors is very different to taking real estate shots.
• Why Ashley doesn’t really buy into trends.
• Why you need to really get to know about a publication before pitching them.
• Ashley’s favorite thing about her job.
• Things that will really make your project different, bring life to an interior- and a great story!

Social Media:

Instagram:

@AshleyHCox

@Clt_homedesigndecor

@tri_homedesigndecor