Futurising

Dolly Jones’s earliest memories of Vogue magazine are of how she used to destroy it as a young girl. ‘I used to rip the covers off it and put it all over the walls of my bedroom’, she tells me down the phone from her office at Vogue House, aka chic central, in London’s Hanover Square. Similar acts of affectionate vandalism were no doubt repeated in bedrooms worldwide, yet for Jones it was a harbinger of a relationship that would propel her into one of the most enviable careers on the planet.

As editor of Vogue.com, Jones has been at the forefront of fashion’s march into the brave new world of web 2.0. For the last five years it’s been her job to give the glamour and gleam of the print edition a unique online twist, ensuring that one of the world’s most revered journalistic brands doesn’t just survive the leap from page to screen but revels in it.

‘There’s no point in just taking the magazine content and sticking it online’ she explains, ‘but there are things that you can do that hopefully expand the magazine offering in a way that fulfils the digital potential of Vogue.’

These include giving the site’s fashion-fanatic readership access to behind-the-scenes video of cover shoots courtesy of Vogue TV, up-to-the-minute news and reviews, and blogs written by sartorial icons such as Paul Smith, Bella Freud and Rupert Sanderson. It’s an approach that fully embraces the dizzying possibilities of web journalism, yet remembers to pay its dues to the print source from whence it came.

'The internet was a very different place in those days'

Given that both fashion and the internet pulsate to the ever-shifting rhythms of trend, they now seem as natural a combo as kitten heels and capri pants. But Jones’s early years as a writer at Vogue.com, under the editorship of Abigail Chisman, were marked by a struggle to convince the fashion world of the web’s legitimacy.

‘The moment we wrote a story, the reaction it got in those days was really negative. People didn’t want to be online, they didn’t want to be associated with the internet, they didn’t want to let us feature their stuff in case it got copied.’

‘The internet was really a very different place. In my world it wasn’t regarded as having legitimate journalistic potential.’

Under the mantle of then-editor Chisman, the Vogue.com team set about tackling these perceptions head on, aware that a steady supply of good content would be the key to hooking in an audience and winning the industry over.

‘We realised that the more we gave people the more they wanted. The more we could put online, the more the traffic increased.’

'I wrote to every magazine I could think of'

As Chisman was promoted to become online editor for Vogue parent Condé Nast’s entire catalogue (which includes the glossy likes of Glamour and Traveller) Jones, by that time deputy editor, was a natural choice to take over the reins as editor in 2005.

Her career path to the editor’s chair proves the value of being proactive, tenacious and above all working your socks off. Having graduated in Periodical Journalism from London College of Printing (now Communication) at the turn of the millennium, Jones launched herself straight into work experience.

‘I wrote to every magazine I could think of. Vogue came back first and said yes. Three weeks turned into a 6 month internship which turned into the writer job at Vogue.com, so I never really had the opportunity to leave.’

Not that she sounds like she’d take one even if it were to materialise.

‘It’s just such an amazing industry to work within because it changes all the time. New designers come up and you’re interviewing somebody right at the beginning of their career, knowing that in a couple of years they might be Giles Deacon or they might be Christopher Kane.’

'Work fucking hard and be really nice to people'

As charmed as a life in the top flight of fashion journalism may appear, Jones is keen to point out that, like all things, you have to take the yin with the yang. In her case, the glamour of parties and the catwalk shows is balanced out by the grind of endless emails and the hours spent calculating web traffic forecasts.

‘It’s hard work. It’s not as if I ditz around at fashion parties all day’, she says, ‘There are some really glamorous, wonderful things and there’s some relentless office work – we’re running a business that has to make money.’

But regardless of whether she’s attending a trendy soiree or immersed in paperwork, Jones never forgets how fortunate she is to be able to walk through the doors of Vogue House every morning. When I talk to her, there’s not the slightest trace of weariness or cynicism to be found in her voice. It’s testament to Jones’s enduring energy and enthusiasm, traits that she believes aspiring scribes should demonstrate the second they set foot in the door.

‘Enjoying the job means that if 5.30 turns into 6 you’re not sitting there desperate to go home. I think that impresses people, and it shows that you’re really ingraining yourself in the team and getting your teeth into it.’

‘When I went to do work experience at Vogue I got in early and I stayed late. I actually didn’t do it strategically. I was just quite scared and I wanted to get everything right.’

It’s hard to overestimate the extent to which Jones’s approach paid off. She remembers seeing a report from her work experience supervisor, succinctly but presciently stating that ‘This one will go far.’

But such dedication is nothing without knowing how to make the most of the people around you. In journalism, as in all creative industries, the age-old but ever-effective art of networking is a key skill that it’s never too early to learn. ‘Every person you meet is a potential opportunity and potential future connection that you might be able to use,’ Jones says, ‘so remember that every time you go anywhere.’

Success, it seems, rests on the right combination of sociability and hard work. When I ask Jones for a pithy piece of career advice, she quotes the blunt, common sense dictum of designer Giles Deacon, ‘He said “work fucking hard and be really nice to people,”’ she chuckles.

Dolly at Futurising

Now, with her headline speaking slot at Futurising, Jones has finally come full circle and will get to share her own hard-earned wisdom with a new generation of journalists eager to see their name on the byline. As daunting a task as this may seem, she’s eager to point out that what ultimately counts is a desire and an ability to do wonderful things with words.

‘Whether you’re a trained journalist, or whether you’re just somebody who set up a blog and started to write, if it’s entertaining copy and it gets people inspired and gets people reading then I don’t care where you train. That’s what online journalism is all about.’

Dolly Jones will be speaking at Futurising on Wednesday 30th June, from 2 - 3.30pm.

Words: Dan Sawney/Photo: Andrea Rinaldi












 

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