One minute she might be commissioning a feature about a round-the-world charity trek, and the next organising her dozens of delivery staff, or getting creative with advertising artwork. As the editor and publisher of the biggest monthly titles covering Milton Keynes and Northamptonshire, Kerry Lewis-Stevenson thrives on the variety that heading up Pulse Magazine involves. Kerry spoke with Sammy Jones to mark International Women's Day.
With a keen eye for art and design, Kerry was a creative force from a young age. She completed a foundation course in Art and Design before hot-footing it to Liverpool to undertake a three year degree in graphic design.
Returning to Northamptonshire, she worked for the Blue Ribbon Label company in Milton Keynes, which proved a great learning curve.
“I learned the print trade from the ground up, gaining an understanding of every kind of print method there was, and that was the start of my career path,” Kerry said.
“When the company relocated, I worked as a gift designer, but I wanted to go back to graphic design, so I went to work for another local company and they allowed me to work self-employed.”
Kerry’s business brain began ticking: “I realised I could earn the same amount of money that I earned full time working just three days a week for myself. I made the jump and I’ve never looked back.”
Kerry had also studied with the Chartered Institute of Marketing, gaining a Post-Grad Diploma which bolstered her know-how.
In the late noughties, Kerry began drawing up a new plan – for a magazine that would sit at the heart of the community.
“There were other titles locally, and one was being used by everyone to source suppliers and to keep in touch with what was happening. I loved the village vibe that surrounded it. I thought, ‘Why can’t we do that for Milton Keynes?’
“I felt I could do it and had enough print experience behind me to make it work.”
That first issue came out in the spring of 2009. The print run was 10,000, which might have been seen as rather ambitious.
“I wanted to hit the ground running,” she explains, “I never thought I’d fail, I genuinely didn’t. It might sound arrogant or foolish, but I just really believed in the product. I knew it was something that people would respond to, would need and would use. I only ever saw the magazine continuing to grow, and that’s what has happened.”
But during those early days Pulse might have been seen as ‘just’ another title in a busy market. What gave it the edge?
“There were other magazines available to people, but they were all A5 and we were an A4 publication, which gave advertisers a bit more space to contribute editorial,” Kerry said.
“People must have picked it up because of its size and because it had fairly good content, but if I am brutally honest, in those early days it wasn’t anything special – it wasn’t the brilliant page-turner that it is today.
“What I wanted was a real community spirit around printed media, and that’s most definitely what Pulse is today.”
Print has been in sharp decline in recent years, but it’s not game over. Far from it. Titles like Pulse are bucking the trend and going from strength to strength.
And it’s not just luck and a prayer that has put Pulse into pole position. It’s a sound business plan and a real understanding of where the title sits in the community that has done that.
“People see us everywhere; walk into an office building, or centre:mk or somewhere locally and you will see Pulse,” Kerry says, “Visibility, content and advertising are all key – if any one of those fails, we don’t have readers, and without them, we are nothing. We will never forget that.”
Like many other publications, Pulse ceased printing for a spell during the pandemic, but Kerry made sure the magazine came back fast – and first.
“We had to in order to ensure our survival, but also because we are there for our advertisers – and that doesn’t mean only during the good times. It means we are there for them all the time, and I’m proud of that fact.”
At a time when business uncertainty was rife, Kerry went one further – expanding the portfolio with two business titles – Business MK and Business Times.
Kerry knows that digital still has a major part to play in today’s environment, though.
“I love print and I think it really is here to stay and it will become more exclusive because there are less of us doing it, but I do realise that I have to future proof the business, so I am working on our online offering and our digital capability, and building Facebook groups and keeping that community feel, which is what the magazines and our business papers do so well.
“We care about the people in our titles – we want them to succeed and get business from our printed matter and digital matter.
“I see Pulse having an online presence as big as the print presence that we already have, and I am actively working on plans for that expansion just now.”
Pulse delivers community stories, exclusive features, music and theatre and much more.
It doesn’t do hard news, and that’s a conscious thing: “News is a different kettle of fish – it’s immediate and it’s taken online. We can see that very much at the moment with the horror happening in Europe,” Kerry said, “Pulse, and the business papers, offer positive stories and promote what is going on locally in the community. It’s real content too – not click-bait nonsense.
“We are something that doesn’t just last a week on a coffee table – we last a month, sometimes two…people keep us and re-read us and that’s what is so important. It proves that people care about our content.”
Pulse is a growing title in MK and Northampton, and it stands to reason that it is something of a sizeable employer too.
With 12 employed staff members, three self-employed contributors and 120 delivery agents, work is definitely not a 9-5 affair for the lady at the helm.
The laptop is always by Kerry’s side, but that’s the way it needs to be: “A lot of people rely on us now and that is a responsibility, but it’s a good responsibility to have,” she considers, “We have grown the business to where it is today and the whole team has worked to get it to this size, not just me.”
By putting in the hard graft, Kerry has learned that taking a little downtime is not a luxury, it’s a necessary part of the job.
“I would advise anybody starting out in business that you need to put in the hours to make the business a success, but you do still need to take some time out, you really do, otherwise work can really wear you down, which can be really detrimental.”
Her bulldogs Cooper and Diesel take life at a leisurely pace, which forces Kerry to take her foot off the gas every now and then, but she is a dab hand at putting the pedal to the metal too – she shares a love of motorbiking with husband Martin and they relish their trips in the saddle.
“There is nothing better than motorbiking on the continent,” she promises, and we’ll take her word for that!
It’s International Women’s Day this week; a chance to celebrate women and their contribution to business. Do you ever feel like a woman in a man’s world?
“I suppose if you think of the hazy days of Fleet Street journalism, you would see it very much as a man’s world, but of course there are a hell of a lot of great females in the industry too,” Kerry shrugged, “I suppose I am a woman in a man’s world, but it’s not something I’ve ever dwelled on – I just get on with the job.”