“If you can all submit your plans to Kim before the next meeting, she’ll collate, and we’ll discuss. Right. Let’s get on with making a magazine,” Helen said.
Everyone except Helen, Celia, and Kim stood up and started to make their way out of the room. Pippa was the first out of the door, mumbling under her breath as she did.
“Thanks for coming,” Helen said to Celia.
“My pleasure. I’ll get you those market reports I mentioned, fascinating reading,” Celia replied. “I’m sure we can use some of the examples to turn things around here.”
“Will you be joining us for the next meeting, Celia?” Kim asked, her finger hovering over the button to send the invites.
“Send me an invite, if I can make it, I will,” Celia replied.
Kim made a mental note to tell Darcy that Celia might be making an appearance in the office that day. She’d never hear the end of it if she didn’t give her some warning.
“Will I see you at the National Gallery on Wednesday?” Celia asked Helen.
“No, I received the invitation, but I can’t do Wednesday,” Helen replied. “But I’ll see you at Margo’s party in a couple of weeks.”
“Fantastic, looking forward to it.” Celia looked at her watch. “Where does the time go? I better make a dash, call me if you need anything. Bye, Kim.”
“Bye,” Kim said as Celia hurried from the room.
Helen gathered the papers and placed them on top of her planner. She walked out of the room towards her office.
Kim followed her. She could feel Rose and Darcy’s eyes on them as she walked into Helen’s office and closed the door behind them.
“It’s not serious,” Helen said. She sat at her desk and kicked her heels off. “Not yet, anyway. But it could be.”
“Christine’s not happy, I bet?” Kim asked. She sat in one of the chairs in front of Helen’s desk.
“She’s not doing cartwheels, no. It’s bad timing; all of the other titles are doing well or holding their own. We stick out like a sore thumb, fifth month on the trot with an overall decrease.” Helen let out a sigh and ran her fingers through her short hair.
“Can I do anything?” Kim asked.
Helen shifted her head from side to side. “Book me an appointment with my masseuse. I have more muscles knotted than unknotted at the moment.”
Kim made a note on her iPad.
“We need to keep the office jolly and upbeat. I don’t want people talking about the situation if at all possible. If people worry about it and talk about it all the time, the misery will spread, people will leave, and the magazine will die.” With a sigh, she changed the subject. “Speaking of misery, can you contact my ex and tell her that I need to move that divorce meeting? Of course, she’s booked it for when she knows I’ll be preparing for awards season.”
Kim grinned. “Sure, I’ll drop her an email. She loves hearing from me.”
“Almost as much as she loves hearing from me, I’m sure.” Helen chuckled. “Did I spy the new girl out there?”
“Yep, Chloe Dixon.”
“Make sure to help her settle in, we don’t want Natasha to scare her off before she’s finished her first day.”
“Already invited her to lunch. She seems nice. Do you want to meet her?”
Helen nodded. “Sure, wheel her in and I’ll do my standard welcome speech. Whenever you can fit it in the schedule today. Natasha is right, digital is the way forward. We need that department to grow.”
“Don’t let Pippa hear you say that,” Kim joked.
“Pippa would be happy if we went back to the way things were twenty years ago. Digital editions, tweeting, SnapChat… the whole thing gives her a headache. Oh, warn new girl about her as well.”
“Already done. And it’s Chloe.”
“Chloe,” Helen said slowly. “Chloe. I’ll try to remember.”
Chapter Seven
Chloe watched as five women filed out of the meeting room. She recognised only the tall, black woman who had interviewed her: Natasha Kerr. The other four women took their seats at their respective desks.
Natasha walked over to her.
“Good morning. I see you’re all set up?”
Chloe stood up, expecting a handshake greeting. “Yes, Wendy helped me out.”
“Good.” Natasha sat at her desk.
Chloe frowned. She looked at the newcomers to the office, wondering who they were and if she’d be introduced to them.
Two of the women, who had sat at the marketing bank of desks, were talking with Rose and Darcy. After a few seconds, they all walked into a meeting room. The other two women sat at the bank of desks next to her. She presumed they were the editorial team, one being the dreaded Pippa.
She looked at Natasha who was already engrossed in her screen. It seemed that introductions weren’t happening. She sat down.
“You will need to get InDesign set up on your Mac,” Natasha said. “It’s the only thing not included in the standard build.”
“Oh… Okay.”
Natasha picked up a sticky note from her monitor and handed it to Chloe. “This is the number for our IT team.”
Chloe took the note. “Okay. Do I… just say I’m from Honey Magazine?”
Natasha looked at her blankly for a moment. “Yes. Let me know when your Mac is set up and then I will start showing you through our systems.” She turned away and focused her attention on her screen again.
Chloe turned back to her Mac and looked down at the note in her hand. She’d expected a little more guidance, but apparently, she was being thrown in the deep end. She wondered if Natasha was trying to test her initiative. Or if she simply expected Chloe to get on with things with minimal instruction. Either way, it was going to be interesting working for her.
“Hi!”
Chloe turned around. A woman in her late thirties with long, black hair stood in front of her with her hand out.
“I’m Tess Arnold, thought I’d introduce myself.”
Chloe stood up and shook her hand. “Chloe Dixon.”
“Great to have you with us, Chloe. I’m the features editor around here. And this is Pippa Wilson, deputy editor.” Tess gestured towards a fearsome-looking woman.
Pippa looked up and offered her a tight smile and half nod before returning her attention to her work. The brief greeting was a relief.
“Sorry for eavesdropping, but I hear you’re going to call IT?” Tess asked.
Chloe nodded. “Yeah, something about InDesign…”
“When you call, ask to speak to David. He’s our account manager.”
Chloe sighed in relief. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Tess smiled perceptively. “No problem, just speak to David and tell him you need a typical editor set up and he’ll know what to do. Any issues, let me know and I’ll give you a hand.”
“David, got it. Thanks so much.”
Tess smiled and patted Chloe’s shoulder reassuringly. “You’re welcome. I’ll catch up with you later in the week, once you have settled in. Explain what we do and how we all work together, that kind of thing.”
“That sounds great.”
Tess went back to her desk.
Chloe was quickly realising that Natasha wasn’t going to be the fount of all knowledge that she’d hoped for. Making friends with other members of staff, figuring out what they did and how she could work with them was all going to be up to her.
Chapter Eight
Fiona stood, leant on the top of the high-backed meeting room chair, and looked at her assembled team.
“I’m not supposed to tell you this,” she began, “but I’m going to because I think it’s important that you know.”
“We’re closing, aren’t we?” Rose asked, always the worrier.
“No. But figures are down, again.”
Rose nervously drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair. Darcy didn’t respond to the news. Fiona didn’t know if she was simply more adept at taking on bad news, or if her family we
alth put her above worrying about employment.
“So, you’re not supposed to know,” Fiona continued. “But now you do. I’m telling you because I know that rumours will begin to swirl if I don’t. It’s not fair that some of the office knows, and some doesn’t.”
“And rumours are always worse than what is actually happening,” Lucy added.
“And Pippa is dying to see our budget slashed, so she can take some of it for editorial,” Fiona said. “That’s not happening, not on my watch. Honey Magazine needs a strong marketing team if it’s going to ride out this financial blip.”
“Is it a financial blip?” Rose asked. “I heard that all magazines are in trouble these days.”
“Magazines have to adapt to survive, that’s true. It’s not like it was ten years ago, even five years ago. Readers have access to a huge amount of free content. And they want it now. To be honest… paper is dead, it’s just taking a long time to get in its coffin. While it’s still around, we need to support it, but the future is digital. As a department, we need to be trying to route people towards it, more so now than ever.”
She pulled out the chair and sat down. “Lucy, I don’t need to tell you that we have to increase ad revenue.”
“I already have some ideas on that front.”
Fiona smiled. The can-do attitude was one of the reasons why she had promoted Lucy to advertising manager.
“Fantastic. We need to play hardball. No more offering discounts just to fill the pages, I’d rather cut the size of the magazine than devalue our offering at this point.”
“But isn’t some money better than none, for ad space?” Rose asked.
“Not necessarily. Our advertisers talk to each other. If one pays three hundred pounds and finds out that someone else paid a hundred, they’ll expect that discounted rate as well,” Darcy replied.
“Quite right,” Fiona said. She’d always been impressed with Darcy’s marketing instincts. The young woman was wasted as a lowly marketing assistant. Fiona hoped that she would get an increase in budget in order to promote her, before the girl got bored and left.
The board had finally seen sense a couple of years ago and started to put more money into the marketing budget. They’d woken up and realised that magazines didn’t sell themselves. The market was competitive, and those who spent money made money. Fiona had finally been given the means to grow her team, but there was still a long way to go. She needed further investment to make a real difference. But with cashflow being an issue, she’d have to work with what she had.
“I’m going to speak with Natasha, see if we can get an increase in some of the digital advertising rates. It’s the way things are going anyway, so we might as well get started,” Lucy added.
“Perfect.” Fiona turned to Rose. “We need to ramp up our social media engagement. I know that we’ve come a long way since you started working on our social channels, but we need to get to a level of engagement that our competitors have. See what they are doing, and other brands. Come up with an action plan.”
Rose practically vibrated with excitement at the idea of a new social media campaign. Honey had been very slow to get on social media, and, when they did, it had been amateurish at best. Getting someone in to focus on that part of the marketing mix was key to Fiona’s future plans.
“Sure. I’ll speak with the new digital girl, Chloe. She must have some ideas for getting more digital subscribers through social media.”
“I’m sure she will,” Fiona agreed. “And she might need a friend if she’s working with Natasha.”
Rose nodded emphatically. “We’ve already invited her to lunch with us.”
“Good.” Fiona couldn’t imagine working with Natasha day in, day out. Her own team could be a little rowdy, and sometimes she wanted a moment of quiet. But she’d rather have that than Natasha’s frosty demeanour.
She’d given up trying to make friends with the woman. Or any connection at all. She was impossible to talk to.
“I’ll speak to Nicola the next time she is in,” Rose added. “See if she can give me some more free stock photos. Our image library is getting a bit repetitive, and if I increase how frequently we are posting, it will be really noticeable. She gave me some free images before, ones that are fine for social media but not good enough quality for sale.”
Fiona felt her cheeks heat at the mere mention of the freelance photographer. She looked down at her notes to hide her face.
“That’s a good idea, I need something new for my email banner to prospects,” Lucy added.
“I hate that one of the woman running through the field,” Darcy said. “Why are so many of our stock images women in fields?”
“I know, right?” Rose added. “Why are all these gorgeous women out in the middle of nowhere?”
“Maybe they’re responsible for crop circles,” Lucy joked.
Fiona let them continue talking about the stock image library as her mind wandered to Nicola Martin. Nicola had been working with Honey Magazine forever, offering her work at severely discounted rates while her career flourished. At the top of her career, and only in her mid-thirties, she cut an impressive figure.
As a freelancer, she came and went as she pleased, a motorcycle helmet on a hot desk the first indication that she was in the office.
Fiona has spent the last two years staring longingly at Nicola but was terrified to make a move. Every single time she interacted with her, she said the wrong thing. It was a special gift. One which she was desperate to return to sender.
Time and time again, Fiona had tried to connect with the woman only for it to end in spectacular failure. The most famous, and mortifying, time was when she had attempted to enquire about Nicola’s weekend, only to find out that her grandmother had died. Apparently, everyone else knew. But Fiona waded in without a clue and embarrassed herself.
For the final time.
After that, she gave up.
It wasn’t like she was great at socialising anyway. At work, she was fine. In an office environment there were rules and obvious conversations to be had. But once out of work, things went wrong. She could no longer predict which direction a conversation might take, and she’d find herself lost, spluttering out the first thing that came to her mind. Never a good idea.
“So, should I ask Nicola to come in for a meeting with us?” Rose asked, shaking Fiona from her thoughts.
“Yes, by all means, drop her an email.”
Fiona had a love-hate relationship with Nicola coming into the office now. On one hand, she was happy to be able to see her and stare longingly at her from a distance. On the other, having given up any hope of having a normal interaction with the woman, it was a little like standing outside a closed ice cream shop on a hot day.
Chapter Nine
Darcy opened her Joseph Joseph lunchbox and unclipped the plastic fork from the lid. Rose was on a phone call, Kim was on her way, and Chloe had popped out to get a sandwich. It was decided, by Rose, that Darcy should go and claim their table. Just in case one of the architects saw an opportunity to snatch it and upset their lunchtime routine. Although she’d like to see the brave outsider who would dare to sit at their table in the shared kitchen.
She stabbed a piece of farfalle pasta and ate it. Her eyes wandered to the hydration tracker app on her phone that sat by her water bottle. She’d been so busy that she was well behind her goal.
Kim had laughed at the hydration tracker when she’d first brought it into the office. Darcy knew she would. It was a present from her stepmother, who was obsessed with any modern tech when it came to health. But Darcy had ignored Kim and relished in the device’s news on her daily water intake.
Except for days like today, when she was woefully short of her goal. The morning had gone in a flash. At first, they were worrying about the meeting, and then Rose had been dominating her time with her expectations of Honey’s demise.
Darcy had lost count of the number of emails Rose had sent her listing suitable jobs that she
had seen online. Rose loved Honey, but she also loved shopping. With financial difficulties in the air, Rose already had one foot out the door. And she was encouraging Darcy to do the same.
Darcy had no intention of leaving. If Honey ever closed, she’d help whoever was left to lock up the building. The work wasn’t the most mentally stimulating, but the people and the ethos of the company would keep her at her desk until the last second.
Kim hurried into the kitchen with a pre-packaged sandwich and a bag of crisps.
“Sorry I’m late.” She chucked the items on the table and pointed to the kettle. “Tea?”
Darcy shook her head. “No, thank you.” She shook her water bottle.
“Drunk enough decilitres today?” Kim joked.
“No, actually I’m very behind,” Darcy admitted. “It’s hard to take a sip of water when you have to constantly reassure Rose that the world isn’t ending.”
“So, Fiona told you guys everything?” Kim guessed. She pulled a Honey mug from the cabinet.
“Yes. And, of course, Rose is panicked.”
“Rose was panicked before she knew what was happening. Which, by the way, is nothing. Yet.” Kim filled up the kettle and turned it on. “By the way, I shouldn’t tell you this because it’s only encouraging you… but you’re my friend so here it goes. Celia told Helen that she’s going to the National Gallery on Wednesday evening. Some event, I think?”
Darcy dropped her fork into her pasta salad and grabbed her phone. She closed her hydration app and opened the gallery website. The moment it loaded she checked the events calendar.
“You’re wasting your time,” Kim told her. “She doesn’t know you exist.”
“She will when she bumps into me on Wednesday,” Darcy told her.
She wasn’t entirely sure about that, but she liked to present an air of confidence. Kim and Rose already thought she was insane for pursuing Celia. She had to pretend that she knew what she was doing to save face.
“Who bumps into you?” Rose asked as she entered the kitchen.
Climbing the Ladder Page 4