About T3

Hello Kieran. So you’ve just recently been appointed editor-in-chief of T3 (congratulations!); how do you plan to evolve the title?

Over the past five years we’ve successfully grown T3 into one of the UK’s leading multi-platform consumer tech and lifestyle titles, with record numbers visiting the website and an award-winning tablet edition. We’ll continue to develop T3 into an essential resource for those looking to lead tech-inspired lifestyles. Technology permeates every area of our lives and T3 will reflect this.

There are a lot of consumer tech publications out there, how do you differentiate T3 from the competition?

T3 is one of the only consumer tech titles that offers readers such a wide variety of choice in how they consume our content. We’ll continue to hone our products to ensure that readers and users who engage with T3 get an experience that’s been perfectly tailored to the medium they chose to consume our products on, whether that’s print, tablet, web, mobile or any other areas where we feel there’s an opportunity to engage an audience.

Are there any exciting changes in the pipeline for T3?

T3 is always evolving. We were one of the pioneering tablet titles in the UK, setting a benchmark for not only what a fully enhanced tablet title should look like for readers but also in how the content is produced. Change is now a part of everyday publishing and there’s plenty of exciting new opportunities that we’ll be looking to explore over the coming months as we continue to innovate and move T3 to the next level.

Describe a typical reader…how many of them are there?

As a multi-platform brand you have to break down our readership. While there’s crossover in the types of people who engage with us in print, tablet and online, there are also discrepancies. We tend to appeal to a male audience between 30-45 with high disposable incomes. They lead active lives and are discerning when it comes to what they buy to help them work and play. The online audience tends to be slightly younger and there’s a larger percentage of women coming to our site. The web audience unsurprisingly also has a more global mix. In total we reach well in excess of 1.5 million readers a month across the platforms.

About you and freelance journalists

What are the attributes that make a freelance journalist stand out for you and would make you use them again?

Standing out as a freelance is no easy task. As an editor we get hundreds of pitches a month. The ones that stand out are from people who’ve taken time to get under the skin of your title and understand what it’s about. They can also spot the content that might be freelanced and carefully tailor their ideas to fit. 

About PRs

What types of PR agencies do you work with?

We work with all sizes and types of PR agency. The whole gamut and from all around the world too.  

Of all the press releases you receive on a daily basis, what percentage of them make it to publication?

That’s a tricky one to answer. Bearing in mind the team collectively could be getting up to 500 releases every single day, from an app launch to Kickstarter projects, I’d say 5-10% maximum.

Do you find that your idea of what makes a story and a PR's tends to differ?

Few PRs manage to hit the sweet spot when pitching in items but that’s not unexpected and that’s not to say we’d expect them to understand exactly what makes a story in T3 all the time.

What’s hard to forgive is being asked if you’d be interested in running a story on National Asparagus Week when you’re a technology title. Yes, that has happened.

Kieran Alger is tweeting @kieranalger.