Shut the Front Door with Jane McDonnell

Jane McDonnell is Co-Founder of Gloss Publications Limited, Ireland's leading outlet for fashion, beauty and interiors. After graduating from Trinity College, Jane went to London where she landed her first job with Vogue, under the editorship of Beatrix Miller and later Anna Wintour. Aged only 25, she returned to Dublin to edit Image Magazine and later became the Managing Director of Image Publications. In 2006 Jane and her sister Sarah launched The Gloss as a luxury newsstand title and only 3 years later the magazine evolved to a super glossy large-format magazine published in the Irish Times. 2012 saw the introduction of The Gloss Interiors, one of my favourite reads. Married to Donald and mother to Hugo, Daisy and William, it gives me great pleasure to introduce the wonderful, Jane McDonnell. 

Shut The Front Door is produced by @venturamarketing.ie | www.venturaMarketing.ie.
Email the podcast: shutthefrontdoor@ventura.ie

Transcript

spk_0:   0:03
Hi, I'm Earlene McIntyre, creative director, adventurer design, and you're listening to shut the front door, a lighthearted podcast that will bring you through the front door and into the homes of influential and interesting people. Home for me is one of the most important things in my life. My career has fortunately give me the opportunity to work closely with people and to help through create a home they will cherish forever. Jane McDonald is co founder of Gauss Publications, the publishers of Ireland's leading glossy magazines. After graduating from Trinity College, Jane went to London, where she landed a job with British folk under the editorship of Beatrix Miller. And later on a winter aged only 25 she returned to Dublin at an image magazine and later launched image interiors before becoming managing director of image publications. In 2006 Jane and her sister launched the glass as a luxury news down title, then evolving the title to a super glassy large format magazine published in The Irish Times. The glass interiors was launched in 12 2001 of my favorite reads, and in 2019 the glass started E was launched to become Ireland's most inspirational and interesting online platforms earlier this year. Both the glass and the glass interior. So return to the new stones format. In addition to the Irish Times version. Married to Donald on Mother Day, Hugo, Daisy and William, it gives me great pleasure to introduce the wonderful Jane McDonald. Hello, Jane.

spk_1:   1:29
Hello, Arlene. Thank you for that introduction.

spk_0:   1:31
You're welcome. How is life in Lock down for you? Well, life in lock down for

spk_1:   1:37
magazines is certainly challenging. Obviously, we have. We have a small team. We're all working from home at the moment. Um, as the publisher, I suppose I'm responsible for setting the editorial and commercial direction of the magazine, and it's the second part of that that is tricky at the moment. The commercial direction off the magazine With so many businesses in with an uncertain future on currently in lock down, it's very difficult to know what the year is going to bring in terms off our publications on our events. Andi. So it's a challenging time.

spk_0:   2:16
Yeah, it is definitely is on. I think everyone just needs to be as creative as they possibly can be

spk_1:   2:23
exactly. And it is a time when companies like ours, the gloss and the glass interiors can produce that visual escapism and glamour that people are really looking for. Um, you know, to transport them to places where they cannot go. So I think you know those opportunities for us as well, which is interesting.

spk_0:   2:47
Yeah, definitely. It's It's one of my favorite reads. I think it's the reason why I by The Irish Times every Thursday at the beginning of every month, is just to get the glass, To be honest with you, sometimes it's just that on, um, I can mull over your magazine for a month like there's so much in it on it has such great content. So

spk_1:   3:07
I think I think when we launched the glass, we really wanted to tow, have a character, uh, that happened pre existence. I think we wanted to create something glamorous and beautiful, but something that would be Irish and character but have an international perspective. Andi, to try and get the mix right from the beginning and stick to that and filter out any parochialism. I suppose so. I think magazines need tohave, a combination of newness and narrowness, and I hope that's that's what you like about us.

spk_0:   3:45
Yeah, it is definitely on its very inspirational. Um, as like you said, it does transport you, you know, out of the mundane into somewhere else. And you got to kind of get a little flavor for what it's like for people living in these wonderfully glamorous homes somewhere in the south of France or

spk_1:   4:03
yes, but at the same time, I think people are seeking real nous and they're seeking authenticity on bond. So it's trying to come up with, you know, something that chimes with people that doesn't put them off. You can't be tone deaf when you're producing a magazine to what's going on around you, and people are in very difficult circumstances. So I think, you know, we have an appreciation of that on, but I think we like to reflects a little bit of escapism, but at the same time just trying to create and beauty and what you have. And we have so many wonderful things in this country and so many just that it, the Lisha in nature, simple things on do It's about appreciating those as well and bringing those in through the pages of the magazine out online on the glass dot Ie.

spk_0:   4:52
Yes, Aunt. How do you think we've been managing through the luck turn?

spk_1:   4:56
I think very, very well. I think, um, the Irish love their homes. I know that we're social creatures, Onda. We love our friends, but I also think we feel very various home in our in our spaces. I think we've adopted very, very well, um, I think we appreciate hold in Ireland very much. You know, I think we might live a little bit differently now that we've had this opportunity to spend more time at home and do more for ourselves at home. And I certainly know that in my case, I think we've become more conscious of things like air quality and quiet on duh. The sounds we hear is amazing not to hear any claims in the skies. And, you know, traffic has really diminished. So I think the other aspect off being spending so much time at home, together with us all having to do are different things. I mean, I've two adult Children at home and they're doing online exams and who were working at home, and I think it means that you can't buy into that cult of perfection at home because you're all living in that family. Chaos, if you like on it, teaches This pandemic has taught us that that's not important. It's, you know, it's It's the vibe you create at home that you know, the harmony that you created home. That we are appreciated as well on the prophet, the prepping of meals and sitting down together.

spk_0:   6:28
Yeah, it's had many positives, Lieutenant. Here. A mixed blessing. Yeah, that's it. So I'd love to chat with you if I can. About your first childhood memories of home. Jane, can you share a little with me on this?

spk_1:   6:41
Yes. Well, I grew up in a in a modernised tests, but my father, who was an architect, right? His name is Randall McDonald He designed, and shortly after he and mind mother married, they found this SISE of the first of the Dublin Mountains and the experts of John Drum. It's a It was a former or church so covered in fruit trees on. They fell in love with us and they borrowed money from the bank and they bought us and they were very young. I was very young at that point. Andi. Andi. Then, just before I was two years of age, we moved into us on. When when we moved in. My mom likes to say it was barely habitable, but actually it was amazing. It was. And he had designed a single story house always on glass with concrete floors. And there were two very simple civilians. Are wings linked by a corridor aligned and glass. And because it was in an orchard, it's There were trees all around us. Um, Andi, at the time, the outskirts of Don Drum was the country it felts very isolated at Nice. All that glass was like sort of black mirror on. My parents didn't want any curtains. Dad was in the earlier Dr off ideas that he'd gleaned from all over the world, I suppose, And we had a very unusual heating system, or Mary used to come up through the floor. Onda, Um I suppose our house was built along the same principles off. You know, look a boozy A and Mies Van der Rohe was very open with a lot of lies. A lot of lies and nature was less in on. It was it was very adventurous for the time.

spk_0:   8:36
And what was your family home? How would you describe your family? Home style interiors wise? Well,

spk_1:   8:43
design was something that was very big in our house, and I'm certainly from an early age. I had three siblings of the understood off four of us and, you know, the house was a continual work in progress. I mean, are very care memories off a concrete mixer and all of us kids and Wellington boots helping. When the foundations bit were being leave, Dad was always adding on bits to the house, and at one stage he was building an office. He decided to move his practice in, and there were various architects working there on. We were always very conscious of drawings and balsa wood models and talking about design and architecture. And in a way, that was a way of engaging with my dad. A swell he It was kind of a value in the family, and you always felt great if you remembered on architects name that was famous or you got a reference rice. So their style was very simple. It was very modern. They were very young when they married, and my friends used to think that they were very cool compared to other parents, because more miniskirts and dad used to bring us back. Unusual sort of design the toys from his travels. And it was that the interior of the house was very simple, as have modern furniture and spotlights, and and a teak dining table and sideboard and chairs that had still there. To this day, US was now we called a mid century modern on. Dad also designed a lot of building pieces. Um, you know, every time he did a drawing for a room or one of the extensions, he would show us the drawings and he'd have already drawn in the furniture and where it was going to go, everything was very well considered. Um, they were also mad about the garden on bond. You know what? Any sign off any song even in the winter, meals would happen in the garden, and tables would be moved around to different spots to catch the sun. Um, I remember the house is being very comfortable and brief. It functioned really well. That was something that was very important to to them. And they admired good taste. Although I didn't appreciate it at the time. And because we were dragged around to a lot of art exhibitions, they were very discerning, and they were very well informed about influences in art and architecture. And my mom always placed important, some doing things properly, having things, looking nice, setting tables, nicely table linen. You know, she by mugs from cook, any design. And so they were. You know, the design was something that mattered to them, their aesthetic matter to them. And they didn't have a lot of stuff and they never accumulated a lot of stuff. But what they did by was good on bond. Andi sort of worked, you know, was true to the place, if you like.

spk_0:   11:44
And can you describe your own bedroom to me what your own teenage bedroom looked like?

spk_1:   11:49
You know, I would have occupied different bedrooms at different stages, but the one in which I spent my later teens stands out because I remember studying in it for my leaving search on listening to the radio at the same time. But it was it was quite a special room because in an earlier is aeration of the house. When my paternal grandfather lived with us for a period and his forms part of his apartment, if you like. So it was. It was a big room, but the best thing waas that has had its own door to the garden. Which was very handy in my teens for the old sneaky cigarette ash when a friend needed to arrive on escape, Obviously. But, um so I suppose that that's the room I I remember most. And it was closest to the front door as well as the bedroom that was close to the front door so forth when I crawled in, really laced. I had a better chance of not being deceptive. Um, but the interior of the room was again. My dad had have predestined to the interior in the sense because he had designed the the wardrobes and the drawers in this blonde wood, and they were fish it on. They were there. So you didn't You didn't get to tinker around or hold him around the place, and I finally enough, you know, I do remember in my two little sisters, one of their favorite things to do was to move their beds around and move whatever could be moved around in their rooms. And looking back, you've made me think about it now that half they did that because, you know, my dad had such a vision for the house, but it was very tempting. Two method all up and do it our own way on. And but of course he was right. Everything was right where it wasin Anytime we did try and move anything around obviously didn't function nearly as well.

spk_0:   13:41
Yeah, that's hilarious. That's a good memory. Yes, very good. And so at what point did you move to London? Well,

spk_1:   13:49
I why? After Trinity in the late eighties mid eighties, Andi Ireland was really in a very depressed state. Andi. I had taken their I had dull of science degree on bond. I realized, you know, I probably knew from the very beginning that science wasn't going to be in my profession, my career for life, Andi. But I did. I did attempt to get a job in the scientific field in Ireland after I left Trinity, but there were no darts were literally no jobs. Everyone was emigrating. A lot of my friends had moved to various places on bond. I did a group interview at Trinity, and I actually won the the the opportunity to go and work with an entrepreneur in London. His name was Dermot Ryan on. He was a poet on an entrepreneur. He had various businesses in London on. I want the opportunity to go and work for him and while working for him, I think I worked for him for about six weeks. I decided to apply to Conde Nast to British Vogue. Andi I am moved over to London and I had a friend from Trinity whose uncle was in charitable the Church of England property in London. On, she said, You know, we've got a spare room on. I ended up in this freezing place on the edge in the on the edge of Regions Park, with about six others until I got the job of Vogue, which I did. And then I moved into a lovely, sweet little Rikers. EEF last in Pimlico. There was a little two bedroom flat on myself from my flat. Mace lived there very happily for a couple of years, and in fact, I subsequently discovered it was owned by Robin Lane Fox. The gardening cars aren't until the Financial Times, and it had a sweet little period style so far. I remember in a lovely oil portrait. I mean, it was It was it was tiny, but it felt it had a really character to us, which I really looked on those beautiful terraced houses in Pimlico, you know, with the white stuccoed frontage is on. I could walk to work, that's what This was a really, really lovely, lovely way to live in London. And after Pimlico, I ended up in a house off the king's road and subsequently in Battersea and then in Fulham. So I got around in London

spk_0:   16:18
nice areas to live in a swell

spk_1:   16:20
they were. I was very lucky

spk_0:   16:21
on any time I see the devil wears Prada, Gene, I do think of, you know, it

spk_1:   16:27
was very true to life on it. I was, I suppose I was very fortunate to work with Anna Winter because and it's certainly set a bar. And for all of us who worked for her when she arrived and we had had a lovely year working with Beatrix Miller, she was our editor. Before Ana on the life was I felt quite rarefied of British road. People used to sort of drift in a 10 in the morning on There were quite a number of, um, girls on the masthead of the magazine who had titles lady this and laid it out on the honorable Ana came in and she was like when she was called nuclear winter and she waas like a nuclear winter. She said she all of all of those girls were let go. The place was a meritocracy. You really had to work hard for your place. Um, she was very demanding. She had a vision. She wanted you to see it through on. You couldn't get left behind. So, you know, devil wears product. Waas True to life, she waas like that. She she was very exacting. Um, yes, you did have to bring the book around to her house. I remember that very clearly, man, but we learned a lot from her as well on, but I don't look back up that I look back at that time as being a very enriching experience.

spk_0:   17:56
So she changed it all. Do you think?

spk_1:   17:59
No, I don't think she says I think she's quite uncompromising. Um, I don't think she has, and I don't think she softened with age. Andi, I think you know, she's very sure of herself, and that's the way she operates. I see now that she's getting a little bit of negative press from Andre Leon Talley and other people are going to come out of the woodwork. I think people have been very afraid of her. Andi. Certainly in London at the time. Obviously. I was very young and I was junior. One was afraid of her, you know, she she was not a warm person. So, um, on the other hand, she was a fair person. And if you did the job, well, um, you know, she was happy with you if you didn't you rush. So

spk_0:   18:49
I was tough. Yeah, she was tough. And did you learn a lot about the industry?

spk_1:   18:54
Yes. Um, absolutely. I learned a huge amount about the industry and about myself and about the fashion world and the beauty world on the commercial aspects of putting a magazine together. I was very lucky because those day, though those years in the late eighties in London in fashion magazines were the you know, the heyday. Really? Um, it was David Bailey. It Catherine Bailey was on our star staff. She was in the fashion room, and there was Liz till Barris. Grace Coddington was in the office, and Lucinda Chambers was a fashion editor. I was there when there were. All of those incredible women were working there. Yeah, and it was every the bitchy atmosphere was a bitchy place to be, but it was also, um, so stimulating. Um, just fantastic from that point of view.

spk_0:   19:50
And you were like a little sponge, but emergency the

spk_1:   19:53
exact exactly absorbing it all on and absorbing it all.

spk_0:   19:58
And what was Grace Coddington like?

spk_1:   20:01
Where she was a very nice woman. She she had her style. Then she looked then, as she did know, without that red hair, she I remember her most from when she would have to explain an idea for a shooter. And she would bring that out and using words and some garments. And she would have to explain herself justifying why issues would take place on why it would take place in Istanbul or somewhere else. And why they would need an entourage of 20 people, etcetera, etcetera. But grace was, um you know, everybody was in all of grace for the pages. She could create the respect she had from people in the industry but herself. Analogue didn't get on, so that was a huge tension at the time on. In fact, when I was there, Grace, I think resigned and went to work for Calvin Klein and then ended up coming back again because there was nobody to replace. So she was really pretty amazing.

spk_0:   21:05
Yeah, I saw on a being interviewed once where she really you know, she credited her. She said she was very talented aunt. You probably didn't see me, you know, see eye to eye all the time. But they did respect each other. Yes, definitely. And so it must been very exciting for you to come back to our land and create your own magazine. The glass?

spk_1:   21:27
Well, yes, but obviously in between, I put her to put in the hard yards. So I was, you know, after Vogue, I went to work for W newspaper, and then I was offered a job with what was supposed to be a really exciting weekly called River On. They put millions into a trip, was owned by Carlton TV Contin magazines on. And, um, I suppose it was a precursor to Grassy A. So the idea was that it was an upmarket weekly magazine on, in fact, and we were working on it for three months on end, a week after it launched, complete with launch party in ST James's Square, costing a 1,000,000 they realized they weren't gonna bring in the advertising revenue, and it closed. But I had handed in my notice anyway, because I have been offered the editorship of image back in Dublin. And I decided to take it when I came back to Dublin, Dublin Waas Still in quite a depressed economic state in terms of the magazine, you know, there wasn't the glamorous retail that we have now. There was no High Street. There was very little color photography being done, and there were fewer photographers on. There were very few Irish models who we're had made the grade, if you like. So it was very challenging to put a magazine together under those circumstances, Bush and we did on, you know, we grew the circulation of the magazine, and the image has always had always had good editors, you know, on Harris was an editor, Mary Dewey, was an editor. Deirdre McQuillan, briefing editor of the magazine, before I arrived, so which had always had a very good literary reputation on on Over the years. As the economy improved, we were able to do a lot more with the magazine. And then I came up with the idea for image interiors, and we launched out on That was hugely successful movement, you know, people where the pope property Marcus was becoming very busy on people were wanting to spend on invest in their homes. So that was a really exciting time for me. And then I decided to leave. I wanted to do my own thing on Bond Left in 2000 and five and cooked up a plan with Sarah, then to start the glass on on. And it was a very exciting time. I mean, it's the ultimate buzz to create something from nothing. Um, it was also the ultimate risk collaborative experience. Onda. We were very fortunate because there was a lot of goodwill towards us on Do we really were carry buoyed along by all of that and then when the are signs came on board and that was fantastic for us. Twelves. Wonderful to be Teoh have such a partner on to have that association with the Irish Times.

spk_0:   24:35
Yeah, and where do you get your ideas and inspiration from when you're setting out a magazine? I suppose a lot of

spk_1:   24:42
us is about knowing what we've learned about Irish readers on what they want and then looking up, what's out there on looking at what's being done everywhere else on and then having an instinct for What do you think is the next things? You always have to look ahead. I think it's about being curious about what is going on in the world on seeing how you can translate thus for an Irish audience. You know, I think I think we're very lucky in magazines that we get to talk to and learn from, You know, many interesting people and from those people that we speak to and those people who speak it, our events, maybe to the businesses who partner with us. You absorb so many interesting angles from people on. I think it's the mix that you pulled together, and then I think if you have an editor who you know is constantly looking for that kind of inspiration and that, you know, that's how it happens. It's It's the kind of, ah, it's a magic recipe in the way.

spk_0:   25:56
And has digital media and the Internet been damaging to publishing? In your opinion? Or is it Is there good relations between the

spk_1:   26:04
trips has actually changed? How you know, traditional magazine publishers operate for sure on bond? I think you know it's not an easy world to be in to be occupying those two and space is I'm trying to service both audiences, and there's some overlapping of audiences. Obviously, um, on digital is, you know, Arlene it if you have to constantly produce content without an audience, Um, it's very different to pulling together a magazine and considering it in terms of every page on every page that faces every other page. And you know, that's the beauty of a publication. But then again, I think there is nothing to match the experiential experience off a magazine. Off sitting down and reading it were a team of people have got together to consider what goes on every page, and, you know, it's I think it's an unbeatable experience that I think we also have a very valuable audience online, and it's great fun to be able to respond very quickly to trends or two thinking online. You know, it's it's much more immediate,

spk_0:   27:21
definitely. And how has social media impacted your business and your life?

spk_1:   27:26
Well, you know, it hasn't impacted my life in the sense that I don't really do social media. Um, I always I thought long and hard about it, but the brand, the glass magazine on the glass interiors on the glass doors I they are. They are our channels to communicate with our audience so I don't do it personally. I know I'm of a little unusual, and in that respect, I don't know whether it's in Cem. A natural reserve are. I don't want another Rod

spk_0:   28:01
from her back. I'm not sure it's a full time job. I mean, it's really is, you know,

spk_1:   28:08
it's yeah, and I have a full time job. Thank you. And I have, you know, I want to live my life. I don't wanna watch my life online, you on, and I think there's a danger in that, and I think some people are really, really good at us, and it doesn't have to be laborious. Uh, you know I'm in. Or people who can do social media on with that lovely light touch and can let it into their daily existence. I just haven't. I haven't focused on lush myself.

spk_0:   28:43
And if you work in the publishing and magazine industry, what else do you think you might be doing?

spk_1:   28:48
Oh, my goodness. That's a great question. And well, I actually, you know, I love architecture in love design. Um, in fact, I got enter architecture, but I decided not to study it. I don't think I thought my math was good enough. And now what? One of the areas that does interest me. And because close publications, we do magazines for other institutions. Andi people don't know. But we do magazines for the Royal College of Surgeons, for instance, on for you CD and I I I am maybe because of my science background, very interested in science. And I'm very interested in, um, medicine on that whole world. Andi, I think, actually, the pandemic has made me feel in a way that we all ought to be more interested in science. So I suppose you know, if I weren't in magazines. Maybe that would be an area that I would like to explore

spk_0:   29:50
Year, Um, and just in terms of your own home now your own your own home with your husband, Donald on Children. What's your own and interior star like? How would you describe your

spk_1:   30:03
God? You'd be horrified. I'd when? Well, I live in an old house on. And, you know, I was thinking about it when you asked me about the house I grew up, which was such a modern has for its time and so adventurous and unconventional. But I think I maybe I felt I couldn't live in a modern hope has because any modern has I'd live in now would would feel less than the one I grew up in. And perhaps, and the house I live in was built in the 18 thirties. It's ah, it's a Georgian terraced house. And is it is, you know, got tall sash windows and lots of life. Andi high ceilings on. I love that Andi, Like my childhood home. I don't have any curtains on the windows and I have a simple sea grass matting on the floor. Andi, I'm not attracted to anything the hard I like things that are inviting. I like the gentle deadline on. I think I might have been influenced as well by the time I did spend in England and when I was working in interiors, you know, elements like textures and fabrics and flowers and bed linen and softness. I love all those things, and so I don't really buy into trends. I think my own house doesn't have a particular style. It has the things that I own in us and things that I love Inish on, things that are uncomfortable. And that means something to me. But it doesn't have one particular style.

spk_0:   31:44
And you like hosting an entertaining.

spk_1:   31:47
I do. I do. I love having friends and family around. Um, I I love, you know, um, having people in and looking after people on. I love all the rituals that go without the, um, you know, laying off the table, the plant at the planning. What you're going to cook, Um, you know, making drinks, making things nice, candles, all those, all those things, this on and give you a little bit off a feeling off. Just beauty. And I like all of that you

spk_0:   32:26
described your mom?

spk_1:   32:28
Yes, probably this. I think one has interest us from that point of view doing, trying to do things nicely on if people are nice feeling when they come in the door. I think that's really important. Just, you know that they're nice sense of welcome. I also find that the most important thing to me in the house is calm. Um, I think your home needs to be a place where you can rest on you can restore yourself, Andi. All those familiar risk rituals at home that make you feel you know that Take the stress and the anxiety away are really important. That's what home means to me. Um, it's

spk_0:   33:12
your safe place.

spk_1:   33:14
Yeah, I think so. And quiet and peace. Now

spk_0:   33:19
on what's your morning ritual? How would you Can you share some of that with us? What your morning ritual is like? Well,

spk_1:   33:27
I suppose first thing in the morning I opened the shutters off our bedroom on bond. We're up high. So what we see is treetops, which is really nice. Andi, I love coffee and best. That's the sneaky treat. So I go down so stairs and where the Kettle's boiling of the coffee machine is, you know, getting started. I like to go outside. Just let a letter dog and then, you know, especially on mornings like these were just sunny. It's just so lovely to be outside and listen to the birds and see what's peaked up above the soil, etcetera. Then I go back, bring coffee. We have coffee and bears. And then after I get up with more coffee in the kitchen and then I have coffee house work, So coffee dominates. Morning ritual is mainly around three ways. I have

spk_0:   34:21
coffee like myself, And what's your favorite place in your home? Where do you like to kind of on read a book quietly alone or where would you

spk_1:   34:32
go? Actually are are drawing when was lovely? Because if you look ah, so you see you this big sash window and you can see trees on. Then, if you look north, you can see uh, trees. So it's bookended by trees. The room on bond. There is lovely life on, and it warms up during the day. So I love that room. It's got things in it that I that means something to me is have too little coffee tables that my dad designed and hurt mate. It has a big portrait off my kids that we had done when they were younger, and it's very casual, Portray posits. It's in pride of place over the mantelpiece. Um, it has lots of books that I like and, you know, things that my siblings have given me or friends have given me. So I always find it very. I've got a great big sofa on Bond, a great big Irish made so far covered in a soft grey Lynn and on that's that's where I do love to sit. I have to say so

spk_0:   35:44
that would be your favorite piece at home.

spk_1:   35:47
Yeah, it would be. It would be a place I would go for sure, yes.

spk_0:   35:52
And do you find that you perform better under pressure? Are you super organized? What do you like in the workplace?

spk_1:   35:59
And we're used to performing under pressure in magazines were always up against his headline. So I'm I'm a planner, though I do like to see around corners if I can. I like to have a plan. Um, I I do play out scenarios in my head, so things don't tend to, Not me for six. I've usually been awake nights worrying about that exact thing that will happen, I suppose. The experience of being in magazines for so long and now we couldn't have We couldn't have anticipated this problem happily, something like this has, you know, nobody could have predicted this. So, you know, I think being able to be resilient, it is very important. So you asked me and my super organized I wouldn't describe myself, particularly a super organized. But certainly I think you need to be prepared. So I think preparation is something we we do. Well, um, on planning ahead something Me too Well, and at the same time, you got to be very reactive. And some of the are best. Our best ideas have bean around opportunism. Just having an instinct that this is the moment to do this. So this is the moment to go. Why not On having some courage about it as well, you know? So just writing hands, you know, taking a risk. I do think you have to be able to do that, Onda and doing a last with very little.

spk_0:   37:38
Hmm. That's true. And what have you learned about yourself during the pandemic?

spk_1:   37:44
Um, I've learned. Well, I mean, I knew this anyway, how happy I am to spend time at home. Um, even if it's cleaning or in doing boring things. I love that I have spent time painting garden furniture, digging things in and weeding and just I've enjoyed all of that, but I've also enjoyed. Thus I missed. I've also noticed that I I do miss the balancing of ideas that comes with all of our team when we're in the office together. That's true. You know, I've heard people talk about how this is going to change how we work in the future on I I I question that a little bit because I think and it would be great if you could have a balance and you could spend perhaps a bit more time at home and avoid these long commutes that some people have to do, which is very difficult for them on the whole child camping. I do remember when I was in That phase of my life has stressful. It is so I think it would be good if we could remove some of the stress from our lives by working differently. On also, um, acknowledge the benefits to the planet in not going into the office every day. But at the same time, I think that interaction you have with your team is invaluable. I think nothing replaces that. No virtual musing more that is Ilja come from coal is going to its energy. Relax. I have learned to lost about my own and feelings about that. Now, on my own opinions that

spk_0:   39:22
here on, would you describe yourself as a spiritual person? And in that question, I mean, are you mindful? Do you like to meditate? How do you wind?

spk_1:   39:32
I don't meditate. I do. I do do lots of thinking, but it's kind of active thinking. I'm not very good us, Um, you know, I feel meditation has a lot to do with space. So when I when I much home and it's quiet, I've I described earlier, I find that really restorative on. I suppose that is, in a sense, spiritual. And but I also guess, you know, I also find other spaces spiritually like in the inside of churches. But nobody in the, um, on other places um, I don't meditate. I've have never meditated. Andi, I do have some friends who read a lot about this subject and talked to me a lot about their attitudes, attitudes to spirituality and their beliefs. I think I'm open to that. All of that. I probably and I probably inclined to just keep that to myself more than talk about it. But it is very important for everybody to have that side and, you know, to to get peaceful.

spk_0:   40:46
Yeah, especially now. And Jane, what? One piece in your home holds the most special memories for you.

spk_1:   40:53
So, thank goodness. Um, I suppose that portrait I spoke about earlier, um, it was an unusual experience. It was in our old test, which was also a terrorist. How both on and we We had a bit of spare money on bond. I thought got the kids are us such a wonderful age. Why don't we have, um, painters? Andi, We, um we we got this artist to Cohen visit, and he was really lovely, and he took photographs on Dhue, visited again, and then the portrait arrived on. It was just such a joyful, real depiction off the kids. Um, I'm really glad we did it. I you know it. If anybody ever said to me, I wonder, should we have paid? I would always say, Yeah, do it. It's a really wonderful paying its snapshot in time on. We never had photographs taken of the Children, you know, they never went to a studio and have formal portrait. It's taken off themselves when we have this painting instead on, but I think it's it's something lovely that we have on. The artist actually was invited to, um, exhibit the painting in the Are Hey J one year. So we took all the kids along toe, have a look at their portrays hanging in the art a day, and we have a photograph of that is quite special, actually,

spk_0:   42:22
definitely on Jane, who have been your role models in life.

spk_1:   42:26
Oh, I would say my role models where my my parents initially, I think, then I would say that and my editors that I worked for in London and Beatrix Miller on on a winter on Jane Proctor, who I worked with on W. On Celia Sullivan, who I worked with Phone River. Those four women would have had a big influence on me and then when I came back to Ireland and work for Kevin Kelly, you know, Kevin Waas Very forward thinking in terms of magazines. So of course, you know, a great role model is also my sister, Sarah, who I work with. And so, yeah, I've been very fortunate.

spk_0:   43:21
And what, What makes you proud to be an Irish woman in the in the publishing world? Okay,

spk_1:   43:32
I think, um, I think they're both Sarah and I are proud that we have created, um, business something out of nothing we've We've created something that didn't exist before. Andi, we've developed, you know, a business. Thus employees people have business slash supports Irish retail that and supports the economy in Ireland that is involved with fashion, beauty, design and all disciplines from fashion and designed to food and everything. It in a publishing row, you have a bit of a voice as well. While I think that is being fantastic, that we've been able to use that voice at times to convey things that we felt were important in the magazine and through our events particularly. I'm thinking about the, um you know, the women working women on how through our look the business event. We, um, applied to filter, too. That whole world of women working in a mom what really is in effect amounts world and giving them a voice on, as most were prior. Because we deliver a reading experience every month and on and on line that shouldn't ever be Blore boring or sloppy or be the product of a of a lazy eye. We always take it very seriously and do the best we can on. So I suppose all those things on may be proud. And also they have bean obstacles that there are on any path. And, you know, looking back over the last 14 years that we've had the glass, we've heard a major recession. Andi, Now we have a pandemic on. Do you know, in a small country like Ireland with a very low population, it is quite a challenge to produce top quality glossy magazines on dso I'm heard that we've managed to do that sums. I hope we can do it for years to come

spk_0:   45:43
on. Where do you see yourself in the next five years?

spk_1:   45:46
Greatness. Arlene, I e. If there's one thing this pandemic has taught us, is not to look too far into the future. And I I think it would be wonderful if we all were able to maintain our businesses on, create a better way of living and working after this. Where there's less waste on, there's more sustainability. And I I think that would be important in our business to know, to reduce the amount of waste that there is. We've already that's already been something that we've seen proactive about over the last couple of years. Andi, I think just to develop our community of readers, aunt, to engage with them as best we can and to continue to push the envelope in terms off accidents, in everything we do in terms of our print publication in front in terms of our online content, on also in terms off, the way we bring people together at events. And we always like to, you know, make it better all the time. Hey, I'm not rest on our laurels.

spk_0:   46:59
Well, that's true for everyone, for sure. And what advice Jane would you give to your younger self Looking back over your career? You, um probably

spk_1:   47:07
not to worry as much as I did. I think I spent a lot off time being really quite anxious us and, you know, you know, I did. I took everything terribly seriously, a lthough time and was very diligent, very committed all the time. And I think, you know, perhaps one doesn't have to be as a Z much a slash. Um, but I think all in all I I don't look back and regress anything that I think would be to just enjoy the journey more.

spk_0:   47:48
Mm. Exactly. But having said that, I mean, when you say that you maybe shouldn't have worried as much as you did. I mean, that's that's what's led you to where you are today.

spk_1:   48:00
Well, who knows, Arlene, Maybe if I didn't worry as much, I'd be, You know,

spk_0:   48:04
we should be

spk_1:   48:05
in a different place entirely. But I think you know, those kind of questions are always maybe well, you need a bit more off time to take about a year. And my my instinct is that looking back and things happen and things happen that you can't control and things happen that you can control, but you can't control everything on. I think a lot of our worries are around trying to control everything too much. And so I suppose it would be to just know not to get too anxious about doing that to do the best you can. But you can't control everything.

spk_0:   48:43
It's very, very true. And my final question. Jane, if your home was on fire and you had three objects to say, what would they be? Oh,

spk_1:   48:55
my goodness me and wealthy after Mentions portrays because that would belong to allow the kids. So it's I was, I would say that I would probably save one of my dad's tables. What else would I save? I'd say the lovely Irma's trade that Sarah gave me hums, Um, for sure.

spk_0:   49:25
Perfect. I'm just gonna ask you a few quick, quick questions. They're called the quick for a round of questions, Jane. So these are just yes or no A or B, whatever it is. Very quick. Coffee or tea, coffee, bathroom, shower, our texture. Talk, talk morning or night, person night, taxi or walk, walk home or a brought home. High street or couture ensure interiors are fashion interiors, print or online friends Dublin or London eat in or eaters. He's in news or Netflix. Methinks at a winter or Beatrix Miller took center. The last one is Boris Johnson or Donald Trump.

spk_1:   50:11
Please, I can't answer that question. I smoke Boris over dollars.

spk_0:   50:20
Okay. Well, thank you so much, Jane, For spending time chatting with me today. Thank you. Early on and wish you well on. Stay safe.

spk_1:   50:32
Thank you.