My Life In Media: Dolly Jones
'Ten years ago we could hardly get into fashion shows. But now designers complain if we don't report on them within hours of the show's finish'
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Your support makes all the difference.Dolly Jones, 30, runs Britain's most successful fashion website. Last month vogue.com won the British Society of Magazine Editors' Website of the Year award. The first ever profile she did was of Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman, and six years later she was editing the fashion title's website. Jones was born in Omagh, County Tyrone and brought up in Hampshire. She now lives in a Victorian cottage in south west London and is getting married next year.
What inspired you to embark on a career in the media?
I like telling stories. Even more so if they're true.
When you were 15 years old, which newspaper did your family get, and did you read it?
The Daily Telegraph and only under duress. Jilly Cooper, Ian McEwan and F Scott Fitzgerald were preferable to broadsheets at that age."
And what were your favourite TV and radio programmes?
At 15 I think I was too busy pretending to be cool to watch television - nothing particularly stands out in my memory. Radio 1 woke me up every morning before going to school.
Describe your job
Editor of vogue.com - being on the pulse of the fashion industry, reporting on every mover, shaker, model, designer, shoe, handbag, dress, hairstyle, lipgloss, party and trying to translate the beauty, elegance and intellect of the Vogue brand on to the universe of possibility that is the internet.
What's the first media you turn to in the mornings?
For distraction on the Tube, Metro. At work: Yahoo.com
Do you consult any media sources during the working day?
Women's Wear Daily online and fashion trends forecaster WGSN.com.
What is the best thing about your job?
That there is always something different to do, better than before, and it never stops. The biggest highs happen when we're able to feature a new designer talent who then makes it big in the fashion world - in an industry known for its fickle nature it's nice to be in a position to give people a leg up occasionally.
And the worst thing?
That there is always something different to do, something better than before - and it never stops.
How do you feel you influence the media?
Hopefully we are considered to be a reliable source of information from the front line of the fashion industry - it used to be a closed world and we have now made it more accessible to consumers, whose appetite for fashion is growing all the time. Plus, as above, we're able to pinpoint new fashion talents before they hit the mainstream radar, which is good for them and for us.
What are the proudest achievements of your working life?
The People's Voice Webby Award in 2005. BSME Magazine Website of the Year 2006. Ten years ago we could hardly get access to any fashion shows - but now designers complain if we don't report on them within hours of the show's finish.
And what's your most embarrassing moment?
Wearing a stunning Vivienne Westwood bustle-backed skirt on my way to the shows and walking like I thought I looked really amazing before being stopped by a kind girl on the street who misinterpreted my fashionable bustle and told me my skirt was tucked in my underwear. "It's meant to look like that," somehow didn't help.
At home, what do you tune in to?
I've just discovered Classic FM. It makes scarily early mornings romantic and let's me imagine life is just a film.
Which Sunday papers do you normally read? And do you have a favourite magazine?
The Sunday Telegraph and The Sunday Times and I can't help that this will sound biased in the circumstances, but for me my favourite magazine has always been Vogue - since I plastered covers of it all over my bedroom wall at the age of 12.
Name the one career ambition that you want to realise before you retire
To have something published that somebody might quote one day.
If you didn't work in the media what would you do?
Read it and daydream. And dress up at every opportunity.
Who in the media do you most admire and why?
Jeremy Paxman for knowing so much he's allowed to be that rude.
The CV
1999 Takes a journalism course at the London College of Printing and decides on a career in fashion journalism, scoring her first job on Vogue magazine
2000
Spends five years working in various editorial positions across Vogue and its sister website Vogue.com
2005
Becomes the editor of Vogue.com. The website shares its 10th birthday with Brown's boutique and releases a birthday video with tributes from Paul Smith, Lily Cole, Philip Green, Stuart Rose and Alice Temperley
2006
Wins the British Society of Magazine Editors' website of the year award and launches Vogue TV, which had 1.8 million users in its first fortnight
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