'You can’t think about words in isolation when producing for the web' – Q&A with Marta Cooper

Each week we ask a leading figure in digital news about their work, their career and what it takes to be a journalist in the 21st century.

Our guest this week is Marta Cooper, deputy growth editor at Quartz. She gives us an overview of a newer role in the newsroom and what storytelling skills she thinks aspiring journalists should focus on.

What is your job title and what does that mean?

I'm deputy growth editor. It means I’m tasked with helping Quartz grow its audience specifically in Europe, Africa and India, so I work with the growth team in the US and editorial teams in these regions to develop a strategy around this.

In practice I have to be across lots of different things – workflows, time-zones, traffic goals, publishing patterns, audience patterns, social media best practice and, of course, stories – in order to think about the strategy for a specific region and the strategy for the business as a whole.

On a day to day level it involves running the Quartz social media accounts in the morning, liaising with the UK team to discuss which stories we’re working on that day (and getting up to speed with what’s been published overnight), helping writers discuss ideas, framings and headlines for their stories, monitoring the news and any emerging stories from elsewhere, and assessing daily and monthly traffic.

I also spend time sifting through our archives and discussing with my team which other stories or issues we could cover.

How did you get started in the industry?

I began with a brief stint as a digital publishing intern at openDemocracy, learning the ropes of online publishing and writing where I could. I then lived in China for two years, where I freelanced and blogged and became more versed in social media and online communities – namely through Global Voices Online, where I had the privilege of being a board member.

When I moved back to the UK, I worked with Index on Censorship’s web team, doing a range of things from writing and reporting to commissioning, sub-editing, social media and audience development, and research.

That took me to the social media desk at the Telegraph, where I helped run the social accounts to build our audience, worked on newsgathering and verification during breaking news scenarios, liaised with desks around story ideas and, most recently, headed up the team during the 2015 general election. I also wrote for the women’s desk from time to time.

I then joined Quartz in September of this year.

What do you most look forward to at the start of your day?

After (an ideally post-workout) breakfast and coffee? Genuinely seeing which stories we have published while I’ve been asleep and which ones we have coming up during the day. I’ve always admired how Quartz covers the world in such a distinctive way, so it’s a real privilege to be able to be a part of it every day.

What does a normal day look like for you? In emoji.



What three tools or apps do you use most for work and why?

Slack. It’s an absolute godsend for office communication, and especially helpful because I work with teams set across several time zones. It supports multiple project channels, groups, and direct messaging, meaning you can keep across different conversations and tasks during the day in one place.

TweetDeck. It’s essentially a newswire for me, divided into as many lists as my screen can fit.

Chartbeat and Parse.ly. They’re always open so I can keep track of what’s being read on Quartz. 

What would you focus on if you were training as a journalist now?

Two things. The first would be video and multimedia more broadly, as often a story is much better told in a visual way than with words – and you can’t really think about words in isolation when you’re producing content for the web, as it’s such a visual medium.

The second would be thinking more deeply about narrative and storytelling in addition to a news line. To take a step back and think: what’s distinctive about this story, and why should it be written about at the expense of others?

What skills do you think are important to your role?

Organisation is crucial. I deal with multiple streams of information, tasks and requests throughout the day, so having the tools to process all of these is essential.

It’s also important to be able to take a step back and try to see something from someone else’s perspective when you’re working with different teams and stories from across the world.

Lastly is communication; we’re a global news operation, so I’ll pick up tasks from a team in one part of the world and hand over others to another part every day, so being able to communicate these clearly is essential.

What has your current job taught you about the industry?

That we’re working things out as we go along; [journalism] is not an exact science. For that reason, it’s important to be open and experiment; sometimes you’ll fail and sometimes you won’t, but the key thing is to try, learn lessons and build on them for next time.

What would you say to someone applying to work at your organisation?

Quartz is a 24/7 global operation, so it’s important to be able to think 'big picture' and consider what will resonate with both local and international audiences.

I’d also say: be open-minded to ideas and experimenting with different ways of both covering stories and solving problems. Be hungry, take initiative and communicate what you’re doing clearly and openly.   

What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?

Listening is as good as speaking (...that’s from my dad).

Join us next week for a new look into the media industry – in the meantime, check out our other weekly interviews with digital media experts.

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