Jill Manoff is the Editor-in-Chief at Glossy and Modern Retail
In this episode of Coffee with a Journalist, we chat with Jill Manoff, editor-in-chief of Glossy and Modern Retail, two leading titles under the Digiday Media umbrella. Jill offers a behind-the-scenes look at how she approaches pitches in the fast-paced beauty, fashion, and retail space, plus her secret to inbox zero. She shares what makes a subject line stand out, why data matters, and how AI is reshaping media. We also dive into the role of conferences and her candid take on publicist relationships (spoiler: keep it professional). Whether you’re in PR, media, or just curious, this episode is full of practical insight.
Click below to listen to the full conversation and read below for highlights from the interview:
What Modern Retail and Glossy Covers
[00:01:27] BB:
Yes, so happy you are here. Give us just an overview, if you will. I like to have just straight from the horse's mouth on like, well, what does Glossy now encompass and then Modern Retail and maybe like the relationship between two. So people can understand that.
[00:01:43] JM:
Oh, absolutely. Notes high, high level—but we’re both under the digital media umbrella. Glossy launched about nine years ago; it spun off from Digiday Media’s retail coverage. They saw the opportunity happening with fashion. It was definitely a space that was moving fast and disrupting, in terms of the strategies the industry was embracing. It started with fashion, luxury, and technology being the focus. Later on, we added beauty to the mix, which really took off, and now that’s a big part of our traffic and content—all those things. So yes, we cover the evolution of fashion and beauty, also wellness with a focus through a tech/digital lens—kind of things going in that direction on the modern retail side, which also kind of spun off from other coverage Glossy doesn’t cover.
[00:02:41] BB:
The retailers. Yeah, like more the B2B?
[00:02:45] JM:
Yeah, it’s more the enterprise terms of retail—we cover Amazon, we cover Walmart marketplaces, things that Glossy doesn’t touch. And it’s been booming. Our Amazon and Walmart coverage, in particular, has been doing great. That editorial team has dedicated events and podcasts and really a very engaged and loyal insider audience from the industry. So yeah, both are B2B publications and both do similar content in terms of looking at the evolution of the space and some emerging strategies that others in the space can latch onto and get inspired by in their day-to-day. And just so other people kind of get this, the other two platforms under the digital media umbrella are Digiday, which covers media and marketing people, and then Work Life, which is our modern workplace publication—how we work, all that good stuff. So yes, it’s our newest publication, and from time to time we’ll share stories because, you know, some stories fit more than one. So it works out great.
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How Jill Organizes Her Inbox
[00:03:50] BB:
So how's your inbox, Jill?
[00:03:53] JM:
Well, I’m a zero unread kind of girl, so I don’t understand when people tell me they have thousands. I’m like, get it together. I mentally do not understand that—personally. But, you know, we’ve got our little processes. We know the ones that we open and the ones that we don’t, and the ones that we feel the need to respond to and the ones that we don’t. So I mean, I’ve got a little system happening, but I’m a very clean inbox girl—even though I’m not saying I don’t save everything, but everything is read, so I don’t purge.
[00:04:28] BB:
Yeah, so that's me too. I have, you know, hundreds of thousands of emails at this point. Just. Yeah, exactly. So the question on that though is do you then search your inbox as your own personal Google file?
[00:04:41] JM:
Yes, usually when I'm looking for a specific contact who works with this brand, somebody that I need to get in touch with. Yes, I do.
[00:04:50] BB:
Yes. And by the way, can you give us an example of a search? Because this has come up on this show a number of times—how do you make your pitches, let’s say, the most searchable so that when a journalist is reviewing or trying to find that source again, you’re not being missed because you didn’t include “OMD in skincare/dermatology,” you know, something like that that just gives it a little more juice. How would you say?
[00:05:15] JM:
Honestly? I mean, the latest example that’s just top of mind—and it’s probably very obvious—is to put the brand at the start of the subject line: the brand that you’re representing, the brand that you’re pitching. For instance, one of my reporters just asked in our shared channel, “Who works with Beauty Counter now? Who’s talked to Beauty Counter?” I just searched Beauty Counter. I didn’t have a current contact since they just changed representatives, but that’s what I was looking for—I was just looking down the subject lines for Beauty Counter. I saw it in a couple of emails; it was just, I don’t know, other people mentioning it, but it definitely wasn’t the PR person.
How Jill likes to make relationships with Publicists IRL
[00:17:29] BB:
Speaking of, like, finding you, do you want to have any relationships with publicists? How does that look for you?
[00:17:40] JM:
Oh, my gosh, it's so fun. We talked about this today. Oh, oh, it's good to know, like, who they are.
[00:17:47] BB:
Yes.
[00:17:47] JM:
We have our acquaintances. I said the words today: "Let’s not get too chummy." Because it’s like—it’s not, “I scratch your back, you scratch mine.” I don’t know. It gets to be a little much when I hear one of my reporters say, “Oh, so-and-so told me this, but I can’t share it. I don’t want to hurt the relationship.” And I’m like, “Well, was it off the record?” No. “Was it on background?”
[00:18:07] BB:
No.
[00:18:08] JM:
Well, I’m like, then we’re telling the story—like, what? What is the big secret? And it’s always very touchy. And I’m like, if it’s so touchy, then what—we don’t face it? We’re not that reliant on a PR person or even any individual source. I’m always like, we are kind of our own super. It shouldn’t be so reliant on something like that.
[00:18:31] BB:
So anyway, someone on this podcast recently said, “Oh yeah, when the publicist writes me like, ‘Great job, so glad we did this piece,’” she felt it was off—like, we're not collaborators on a piece. I mean, we worked together, but it wasn’t a group project that we completed. No—I’m doing my job, and you’re doing your job.
[00:18:54] JM:
Yes.
[00:18:55] BB:
Thank you for doing your job.
[00:18:57] JM:
Yes.
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