Whether working for a bricks and mortar High Street retailer or an e-commerce brand, there are a variety of retail media titles that you should consider targeting for coverage.
Here is our list of the ten UK-based retailing technology journalists that you may want to target. It’s not in any particular order, and does not include retail correspondents at consumer technology, regional and national publications. Instead, our list is focusing on retail-specific media only and just one of our favourite tech-loving journalists at each of those titles.
As with all media, these retail journalists all have different beats and will focus on alternative retail angles. Some may even work with a retail media that only covers specific retail perspectives and industries so always check what news angle you have and don’t send technology-related stories to a fashion-only writer as they won’t appreciate you not having taken the time to do some research before approaching them.
Terry Clark, 365Retail
We’re following on with our six degrees of separation here with Terry, who is founder of 365Retail, as he’s also a partner at Retail Focus. So, while he focuses on the creative design elements of retail at the latter publication, he also covers the latest technology and innovations via 365Retail, which has an insightful podcast series and was partner to 2018’s eCommerce Expo event in London.
Caroline Baldwin, Essential Retail
Caroline has been an editor at Essential Retail, in deputy and full-on format, since 2015. Before joining Essential Retail, she was a senior reporter with Retail Week and prior to that a business editor with Computer Weekly, so she has plenty of investigative retail feature-writing experience under her belt. Essential Retail is a short, snappy story site that works well for time-pressured readers and is devoted to every single aspect of retail solutions. Note though that Caroline does not like to be pitched articles, profiles, interviews or demos. She is only interested in news and press releases, case studies and comments. Her main area of interest is retailers who are deploying cutting edge tech such as virtual reality and voice and analysing breaking technology’s impact on the industry.
Rob Gamage, Modern Retail
Rob is the managing editor at Modern Retail. Combining many years of experience in publishing with a keen interest in small business and entrepreneurialism, Rob is particularly passionate about sharing interesting and inspiring content with retailers to help them grow. His main aim for Modern Retail is that it shares best practice advice to retail decision makers who are looking to grow their business, so aim here with advisory articles and news that offers a good solution to retail business needs. Rob has recently written about 4 Ways AR and VR are Transforming E-commerce Logistics
Chloe Rigby, Internet Retailing
Celebrating her tenth anniversary as editor of Internet Retailing this year, Chloe is also a business journalist who worked as a business editor at her regional newspaper, the Bristol Evening Post, from 2000 to 2005, before going freelance. Having initially co-edited the Internet Retailing series of supplements and reports, before later also taking on the role of web editor, her main areas of interest are the rise and rise of e-commerce and what’s happening in multichannel retail. Approach her with anything facts and figures-based as she tends to prefer news that is backed up by reports, studies, etc.
Internet Retailing has a sister news site that focuses entirely on mobile retail called M-Retailing, and the person to get in touch with there for any news that relates to the telecoms and mobile side of retail is Paul Skeldon. He is a regular contributor on mobile comms to The Wall Street Journal Europe and T360.
Glynn Davis, Retail Insider
Founder and editor of the Retail Insider blog, Glynn is a business writer specialising in the retail and food & drink sectors for media titles including the Financial Times, Retail Week and Retail Bulletin. He is an all-news man, so do not send him pitches of any kind. He only considers straight up news stories, but he is considering launching a paid upload editorial service on the blog for articles and guest posts that are relevant so watch out for that.
Ben Stevens, Retail Gazette
A former PR manager and copywriter, so he is a good contact to approach as he’s been on our side of the fence, Ben is a reporter at Retail Gazette who covers retail brands’ financials and new products and services. Target him for news only unless your client has marketing spend with this media as editorial is limited to partners’ content. Check Ben's story about QVCs new mobile app with shoppable videos.
Fiona Briggs, Retail Times
With over 20 years’ experience in business to business journalism and 10 years of editing at a senior level in both print and online media, Fiona is the editor of Retail Times and editor of Global Convenience Store Focus. So, she is open to news about almost every aspect of retail from local newsagents and ee-commerce brands, but be aware that she only covers retail in the UK so limit your pitches to UK-based retail industry news and editorial offers. Fiona has recently written about the way that Funky Pigeon soars to new heights with Claranet’s AWS and DevOps optimisation.
Grace Bowden, Retail Week
Grace is a reporter for Retail Week. She covers a variety of sectors including value, health & beauty, as well as wider technology developments across retail. She is interested in new appointments, store formats and how retailers are keeping pace with the myriad of technological developments across the industry, from their boardrooms to shop floors. If you are interested in the biggest tech trends to look out for in 2019, read her story here.
Peter Walker, Retail Systems
Writes and edits articles for the Retail Systems and FSTech websites, as well as producing special reports and assisting with events and award ceremonies. For Retail Systems, he covers topics such as EPoS, online, multi-channel, e-commerce, supply chain, and logistics. Make sure to check his post on how Retailers are at risk from lack of digital tax plan
Jane Revell-Higgins, Direct Commerce Magazine
Jane specialises in trade news relating to catalogue, home shopping & multi-channel retail sector - business launches, acquisitions, new appointments etc. Jane is also interested in hearing from suppliers with clients in the sector re account wins.
