[0:00:55] BB: Welcome, everyone. This is Coffee with a Journalist. I'm Beck Bamberger, and we are on this show to help publicist learn how to make better relationships with all of our media friends, and colleagues, and so forth, because we all need to work better together. That is the name of the game, in publicity, and this wonderful world of PR.

With me today, coming straight from New York, where I am also based on this fabulous 70- degree spring day, oh my, is Beth Gillette. She's the beauty editor of cosmopolitan, and we're going to be talking about all things beauty and pitches galore. I'm sure. Hi, Beth. Thanks for being here.

[0:01:35] BG: Yay. Hi. Thank you so much for having me.

[0:01:38] BB: Oh, we are excited, because also, what a fun freaking beat. I can only imagine. So, first, Beth, I like to ask this for every outlet that's on here, just to be clear, and to also hear just straight from reporters, or editors, or freelancers, whomever the media person is. How would you describe Cosmopolitan, especially these days? Because things have quite evolved.

[0:02:00] BG: Yes. Cosmo is essentially just like your very, very cool best friend who is extremely smart and witty, but like is with the times and knows everything. I love Cosmo so much. I was a reader. Then, I fell very deeply in the demographic of the reader before I joined the team. Being on the inside, I see so much about how we just want to like provide a service, and be there for people, and do it in a way that feels really authentic.

[0:02:38] BB: I can hear a little honk in the background. Definitely, you're in New York. Okay. You're talking about authentic, and I love for example, you have this piece with your face. Can chin filler really get rid of a double chin. I tried it. I mean, like that's the most open and authentic, I would say. Here's another one, at home laser is like a magic eraser to my acne scars, like you are putting yourself out there, Beth, I have to say.

[0:03:01] BG: I always joke that like I have donated my face and body to science. By science, I mean, beauty. I have some old photos of me on the Internet, from when I've tried like various treatments, and products, and things. I got Botox. I have a photo of me like showing myself scrunching my eyebrows to show what it would look like.

[0:03:24] BB: This, I think is so unique in the realm of journalism. Most reporters are not putting their literal faces on the Internet to showcase before, and afters, and so forth. How do you feel about that? I mean, obviously, you're doing it.

[0:03:38] BG: Yes, it is. It's so different from what – I bet like all of my journalism teachers from our professors from college are probably wincing anytime they read me being like, "Hey, BB. You absolutely need this serum that was sent to me for free." But for me, I think that the beauty industry has always kind of needed this. I think that that's why influencers and TikTok blew up so much, and YouTube. You wanted a face behind a product. That's how people decide that they want to buy something, or that they want to try something, or to kind of see if something's worth it for them, or to learn.

[0:04:17] BB: That has really evolved and changed, especially in the last couple of years with folks just going like, "No, I'm putting my face out there. Here it is."

[0:06:33] BG: If there's an AI solution, like I need it ASAP. I'm a big folders person. I have the rules set up. I am not techie, so I'm sure that I'm butchering how to explain this. But I have like rules set up. Anything that has urgent in the subject line, or anywhere in the email, it goes into a direct folder. Anything that has event, invite, RSVP –

[0:06:58] BB: This is pretty savvy. Yes. Yes. Yes.

[0:07:01] BG: – goes into a folder. That's something that I'm checking like a couple of times a day. Anything that is like fashion week is another one. I just put that all into one folder automatically. That's kind of the easiest way for me. I even have a folder for holiday, gift guide.

[0:07:19] BB: This is really advanced, Beth? I'd say so.

[0:07:22] BG: Yes. It has helped me a lot to kind of always know where things are. My basic inbox, I'm not going through that as often as I would like to, but I'm able to filter through the important things.

[0:07:36] BB: Yes. Okay. I'd say this is working-ish for you then.

[0:07:41] BG: It is, definitely.

[0:07:42] BB: Yes. Okay. Sources. Are you looking for any particular sources? For example, maybe dermatologists, maybe estheticians? Anybody like that?

[0:07:54] BG: Oh, I'm always looking for new dermatologist to interview, because we're talking to dermatologists across so many different stories now. It's not a story on, what is dry skin. It's also like, we're talking to a dermatologist about how to wear foundation, and what foundation work for certain skin types. We're talking to dermatologists about hair and hair loss, nails even. Every single story that I'm writing about for the most part could use a dermatologist.

[0:08:24] BB: Yes. Okay. So derms are in.

[0:08:26] BG: Yeah. I'm constantly interviewing derms. Estheticians, I love interviewing. Unfortunately, Google hates aesthetician. I'm hoping that – but like within like SEO –

[0:08:39] BB: Oh, really? You're in New York City, I can hear the sirens in the back. But all good. This is how we know we're live. Okay. Really? So, you can't really – oh.

[0:08:47] BG: I always will try to, and usually, I will pair it with interviewing a derm. But for whatever reason, Google really prioritizes within SEO, MD versus estheticians. I love interviewing estheticians when it comes to skincare ingredients, like layering skincare, treatments, anything like that, because they're the experts in that.

Some derms are really great with certain lasers, and whatnot if they are cosmetic derm. But use of chemical peels, and things that are happening more in terms of like a med spa, estheticians are the key to that knowledge. I love interviewing estheticians, but I don't get to do it as much as I would like to. Then, another one is trichologists.

[0:09:33] BB: Oh, okay. What is that type of per – what is that?

[0:09:36] BG: It is the one who is an expert in hair.

[0:09:39] BB: Oh, yes. When they do like the scalp?

[0:09:42] BG: Yes. Yes. Especially with scalp, we have been focusing so, so, so much on hair loss, and hair growth, hair thinning. I think after the pandemic, everyone is dealing with that.

[0:09:52] BB: Yes, stressed out.

[0:09:54] BG: Yes. So, I'm interviewing a lot of trichologists lately, because they're really great

experts in hair. Again, they have such a great knowledge of hair ingredients and products.

[0:10:05] BB: And how your scalp looks. Have you ever done – you've done a little microscope thing?

[0:10:10] BG: Oh my God. Yes.

[0:10:10] BB: Oh my God.

[0:10:10] BG: I've done it multiple times, and it is a different thing every time.

[0:10:12] BB: Me too. Quite the illuminating experience. Yes. Okay. Now, Beth, you being an editor, do you run things down, let's say, to your staff, reporters, et cetera? In other words, you get a pitch and go, "You know what? Okay, I'm going to toss that to so and so"? Does that happen? You write a lot, but I wonder how much you're tossing, and also dealing with maybe freelancers who are trying to write for Cosmo.

[0:10:35] BG: Yes. So, we work with a handful of freelancers. Right now, with freelancers, we're mostly sending SEO kind of down the line with them. We have such high quotas in terms of SEO. I've heard from all of my editor friends that it is the same at every publication. Now, where the money is, [inaudible 0:10:52].

We work with a handful of freelancers in terms of SEO. Then, when there are fun, cool, splashy ideas that we have, and we can't do them, that's when we would also work with freelancers. It doesn't happen super, super often, but occasionally. A few months ago, we worked with a freelancer on a really cool project about secondhand beauty. It was an idea that my – basically, it's like the concept of like buying beauty products on Poshmark, Mercari, et cetera.

[0:11:26] BB: But not use, just discarded?

[0:11:28] BG: Yes. I mean –

[0:11:30] BB: Or discontinued, maybe.

[0:11:31] BG: There are ways to like sanitize eyeshadow palette, and foundations that you've used a couple of pumps out of, but it's not your shade anymore. Very cool concept. Our deputy editor like heard about it and was really intrigued by it.

But it was something that we knew would need a lot of reporting that we just didn't have the man for. So then, she assigned it out to a freelancer, and it turned out so cool, and was a really good reported – we wouldn't have otherwise had time to do. We get a handful, a couple of times, we get to do these like fun pieces with freelancers. I love doing that, because I love working with other writers.

[0:18:38] BG: I think that I'm kind of unique in that sense, because everyone else is like –

[0:18:42] BB: There's some people liking to meet, meet, but I think it's more, and more discerning out there as it should be, as it should be. If you have, for example, I'd imagine for you, "Okay. Why would I meet this with this publicist who has one client, let's say, in beauty?" Whereas, "Oh, I can meet with Sephora as head of coms or something." There's different weights I'd imagine, just as importance. Okay. Is there ever an interest embargoes for you or exclusives? Probably not, but I want to ask.

[0:19:10] BG: Sometimes. Okay. One thing that we've really been working toward is doing cool exclusives, where there's kind of a cool tie in. I just reviewed the Djerf Avenue, Matilda Djerf's brand. We all got to test it in advance, like a handful of us editors, and we all shared a little review. That was really cool, because the day that the products launched, we were able to say like, "Here's what we love about them, here's why you should try them." It was a really great cohesive way to talk about a new brand and a new product in a way that felt serviceable to a reader.

We also love doing that when we can tie in like a coupon code or anything like that.

Or, if it's a brand that we like know that our reader really, really loves. We just worked with K18, and did a whole review of their new dry shampoo. It's like a very expensive dry shampoo, but the best dry shampoo I've ever used. It's very cool. It's like a liquid, it's very different. Again, that was really fun, because that's a brand that our reader really loves, and we knew would be interested in that kind of product. Exclusives when it comes to celebrity sometimes can be fun, for a new play.

However, it's just hard for us, because – unless it gets kind of picked up in a news module, is don't perform well anymore. Like unless it has a really good sound bite, and these days, getting a really good sound bite out of a celebrity is hard. You can't ask them or you can't talk about. And unfortunately, the only thing the Internet cares about when it comes to celebrities is like who they're dating, or plastic surgery, or all of these big top-level things. They don't care about more of the basics.

[0:20:51] BB: Like what are they using on their face, what sunblock.

[0:20:52] BG: Right. It's still really fun, and it's a really cool way. I worked with Xeomin a couple of months ago, and I interviewed Demi Lovato, and she is someone that I have idolized since I was a teenager. That was such a good interview for me, and it was a really cool way to kind of bring kind of myself into it. It felt like a really – we talked a lot about body image, and beauty standards. It made this topic that otherwise would have been kind of just, "Oh, why do you like Xeomin? What's your skincare routine? How do you feel about aging?" And kind of bring it into something that felt a little more robust.