Contact Us

Focus magazine for iPad

General enquiries

Specific enquiries

Focus receives dozens of emails every day. Unfortunately we don't have time to respond to all of them. To improve the chances of getting a reply, please make sure that your query is addressed to the right person.

• Subscriptions
• Website: Online Helpdesk
• Editorial: Graham Southorn, Editor
• Advertising: Amie Price-Bates, Ad Manager
• Features: JV Chamary, Features Editor
• News: Andy Ridgway, Deputy Editor
• Photography: James Cutmore, Picture Editor
• Reviews: Daniel Bennett, Reviews Editor

Subscriptions

Telephone: 0844 844 0257*

Email: focus@servicehelpline.co.uk

Website

Origin Publishing Online Helpdesk

Telephone: 0117 314 8376

Email: onlinehelpdesk@originpublishing.co.uk

Editorial

Graham Southorn, Editor

Telephone: 0117 933 8036

Email: Graham.Southorn@immediatemedia.co.uk

Advertising

Amie Price-Bates, Ad Manager

Telephone: 0117 314 8750

Email: Amie.Price-Bates@immediatemedia.co.uk

Work experience

Focus offers unpaid work experience placements to university students for a period of 1-2 weeks (maximum 10 working days).

We will consider applications from the following groups of students:

1. Students taking a science degree or PhD who can demonstrate a passion for science journalism through examples of work published in print or online.

2. Postgraduate science communication students, or students taking a postgraduate journalism course who can demonstrate a passion for science writing.

We regret that due to high demand, we are unable to consider applications from other students.

Please send us a CV and examples/links to published work, ensuring that you include the following information:

• Name
• Postal address and email address
• Telephone number
• Date of birth
• Title of course
• Brief statement explaining why you'd like to do work experience on Focus magazine.
• The preferred dates of your placement
   

Article submissions

Publicists and PR firms should send press releases as text (images run the risk of being redirected to our spam folders). At the top of the message, it's also a good idea to include a sentence describing what it is you're pitching and why it's relevant to the magazine.

Features

Focus accepts pitches from experienced freelance writers. Please carefully read the following guidelines first, then send submissions to JV Chamary at JV.Chamary@immediatemedia.co.uk.

Writers must meet the following criteria:

• Experience with features: include 2 or 3 clippings of relevant articles
• Familiarity with Focus: understand our subject matter and target audience

Features pitches should include:

1. Hook: Why should we cover your idea now? Suggest when the piece would run (not just 'as soon as possible'). Note: we plan issues 4+ months in advance.
2. Line: How would you sell your feature if it were on the front of the magazine? The idea has to be good enough to appear as a cover line.
3. Sinker: This is your pitch, which should be 100-200 words long and clearly explain why people would want to read your feature.

Pitches that don't meet the above criteria will be rejected automatically. We will only explain why if the reason isn't covered above (e.g. we've already scheduled a feature on a similar idea in a forthcoming issue).

If we like your idea, we'll ask for more information, such as which experts you would interview, the structure of the copy, and suggestions for graphics and illustrations.

We discuss features ideas once a month so please be patient if you don't hear back from us – we'll let you know whether your pitch was successful as soon as possible.

News

If you have a story you think Focus should be covering, get in touch with Andy Ridgway at Andy.Ridgway@immediatemedia.co.uk. If it's something new in science or technology and is going to change everyone's lives or is just downright odd, the chances are Andy will be interested.

Photography

To be relevant to the field of science and technology.

To be visually arresting to the reader; grabbing their attention, while at the same time leading them to question what the subject matter is, especially if it’s not immediately clear.

To have some kind of news hook OR link into an anniversary. Otherwise, to be non-time sensitive but relatively recent. To fit this criteria, the news/anniversary angle needs to be current/upcoming, and not out of date, E.g a news image that was issued 3 months before the on sale date of the issue it might appear.

Subject areas include nature (unusual animals or unusual behaviour), technology (new technology, new techniques, impressive equipment), natural world (stunning natural occurrences, unusual landscapes etc), space imagery (new missions, anniversary images, new space telescope images).

Please send photography submissions to James Cutmore at James.Cutmore@immediatemedia.co.uk

Reviews

From gadgets and gizmos to books and DVDs, Focus is always interested in featuring cool and interesting stuff.

We select things 2-3 months before they are released so that they're still new when the latest issue of the magazine is on sale – it's unlikely that we'll choose products that are already available. We ensure our editorial integrity and independence by never offering anything (such as positive coverage) in return.

If you have something you think Focus readers would be interested in, please email Daniel Bennett at Daniel.Bennett@immediatemedia.co.uk