If getting your brand featured in Stylist Magazine is on your PR wishlist, you’re not alone. With four million women reached every month across print, digital, email and social, it’s one of the most coveted placements in UK lifestyle media – and one of the most pitched-to. So what actually separates the pitches that land from the ones that don’t?
A while back, our founder Nikki sat down with Lisa Smosarski – Editorial Director of Stylist, founding editor, and one of the most influential voices in UK women’s media – for an episode of the What the Media Want podcast. She gave us the unfiltered version. Here’s what brands and PRs need to know.
First, understand what Stylist actually is today
A lot of people still think of Stylist as a print magazine. But the brand has evolved significantly. Alongside the monthly print issue and digital weekly publication, Stylist runs a high-traffic website, a suite of newsletters (including Stylist Love, Stylist Daily, How to Work, Motherhood by Stylist and Strong Women), an active Instagram and growing TikTok presence, a membership community of close to 10,000 women, and a flagship annual event in Stylist Live. The team produce around 400 pieces of content every month across those platforms.
That scale matters for PRs, because it means there are far more placement opportunities than the magazine alone suggests – and far more pitches competing for attention.
Your subject line is your first impression
One of the most common mistakes brands make when trying to get featured in Stylist Magazine is treating the subject line as an afterthought. When a journalist is scanning hundreds of pitches, fun and clever subject lines don’t do the work you think they do. What the Stylist team need to know immediately is what you’re offering. What’s the product? What trend does it tie into? Is it seasonal? Is it new? Get that into the subject line before they’ve even opened the email – and if you have a specific section or franchise in mind, include that too.
As Lisa put it: “If you’re particularly tactical on where you want it positioned, add that to the subject line where possible.”
With up to 1,500 emails landing in individual inboxes each week, anything that helps the team route your pitch to the right place faster is working in your favour.
Spray and pray pitching won’t cut it here
Lisa can tell immediately when a pitch has been sent to a hundred other publications with the name swapped out. It happens constantly – and it just works against you. The pitches that got a yes were the ones that knew her specifically: her column, what she was working on, even her personal situation as a parent. That level of research is a big ask, she acknowledges that, but it’s what separates the ones that land from pitches that get skipped.
“It is astounding how many pitches I get [meant] for other publications… [but] knowing that you believe you are the right fit for our brand is actually very incentivising.”
It’s also worth knowing that Stylist actively looks to champion independent brands, female founder businesses and brands from minority communities – particularly for the Style List and product grids. If that describes your brand or a client you represent, it’s worth saying so clearly in your pitch rather than letting it go unmentioned.
Not every product image will work for Stylist
Clean cutouts on white are still the go-to for most product PRing – but there’s a detail worth knowing before you pick your hero shot. Stylist’s Style List images run small, and entirely black or white products can lose their shape at that size. If your product comes in multiple colours, go for the version that reads most clearly rather than defaulting to your usual hero shot.
For food, travel and lifestyle pitches, strong imagery is even more critical. As Lisa explained, those are the categories where the team would genuinely struggle to represent a product without a great shot to work with.
One thing that surprises a lot of brands: you don’t need to send physical samples unless the team asks for them. They’ll request product if they want to try it – sending it speculatively isn’t necessary and won’t influence whether or not you get featured.
Early September is your Christmas coverage sweet spot
Because Stylist covers both print and digital, their Christmas timeline runs longer than most – which actually works in your favour. Print lands in November, digital gift guides follow late October into November and even early December. That means early September hits the sweet spot when pitching for both – enough time to be considered for print without pitching so far out that you’re forgotten by the time digital planning kicks in.
Stylist’s Christmas focus is on curated gifting rather than big sales moments, and the story behind the product genuinely matters for selection. Founder-led brands and products with a clear narrative tend to do well here.
One good contact can open up the whole brand
This is the part that makes getting your pitch right worth the effort. At Stylist, the teams are built to work across everything – so if your pitch lands with the right person, it doesn’t just live in one place.
As Lisa explained: “Although we have specialists, each team is built to cross all platforms. So if you were chatting to Hannah Ibrahim as our beauty director, she could represent any of the platforms or talk to you about the different opportunities.”
Print, digital, email, social – one well-placed pitch can travel across all of it. That’s a significant return on the research it takes to find and target the right contact.
The common thread
The brands getting featured in Stylist Magazine aren’t necessarily the biggest or the best-known. They’re the ones making it easy for a very busy team to say yes – targeted pitch, right person, clear imagery, good timing.
Want to hear the full conversation? The What the Media Want podcast episode with Lisa is well worth a listen if Stylist is on your target list – Listen to the full episode here.
What is Press Loft?
Press Loft is a PR platform specialising in the home, gift, fashion and lifestyle sectors that helps thousands of brands to get their products into the press. Our PR tools allow companies to easily secure press coverage and quality backlinks by connecting with our network of 27,000+ journalists, bloggers and influencers.
Did you know that we offer a FREE trial of our PR tools for new brands? Click here to start your free trial and join the hundreds of brands already using Press Loft for their business.
Journalists can also register for a completely free account and access press-ready imagery from hundreds of brands across interiors, fashion, food and lifestyle.
