Features Focus: An insight into the work our Features Editorial team deliver for customers

Head of Entertainment and Features Kerri-Ann Roper lifts the lid on the workings of PA’s features department.

Kerri reflects on her first year in the new role, talks about the changes she’s made, some of the highlights, and the exciting plans for 2024. 

• It’s been just over a year in your new role, what changes have you made to the Features department?

It’s been a really exciting year. We have repositioned content to be more digitally focused, and we are producing digital pieces on a daily basis that align with the larger news agenda, in the form of health explainers and more. But it has also been crucial to ensure we have a good balance of long-form content that is available to customers for print. We are better utilising our access to top names in the industry, and working closely with other departments like our Sports team, to ensure we get maximum coverage across good opportunities.  We have also done some very exciting bespoke projects that really speak to how agile the team can be in producing quality content that is tailored to a particular request from a customer, but adheres to the PA standard of fast, fair and accurate.  

• What challenges have you encountered along the way, particularly when speaking to customers?

I think a lot of our customers are on the same digital discovery journey we have been on. So I think the challenge for us has been to make sure we are producing relevant, topical content that speaks to audiences across digital, but also ensure we are serving our core print customers, who are very important.  

• Were there any particular highlights and achievements from your team in 2023 that you were particularly proud of?

 The features team has an incredibly talented pool of writers, who are all experts in their areas. I’m proud of the quality content they produce daily and the hard work from them that ensures our features content is world class. And seeing some of our newly repositioned pieces get brilliant traction and usage from customers who haven’t previously engaged with our features content has been a real highlight.

• What plans have you got in place for your team in 2024?

Digital continues to be a focus, but we also have some exciting, bespoke editorial projects on the go. There are key events this year, like the Olympics, that we are producing a top-class package of content for across travel, food and drink, health and fitness and more, that I think will really appeal to customers.

• What do you see becoming a big content trend for publishers in 2024?

The ongoing conversation around AI and its place in the world of publishing and an increased push from big news publishers to engage with affiliate content, which speaks to the never-ending quest for new revenue sources.

• What are your hopes and dreams for 2024?

To carry on delivering stand out content for PA customers alongside the brilliant teams I am lucky to work with.

To learn more about PA’s Features offering, click here. To explore PA’s Entertainment coverage, click here.