Fireside Chat, Interview
Joanna Coles: Storytelling in the 21st Century
- Joanna Coles published a self-made magazine at age 12 and received a letter from Queen Elizabeth's lady-in-waiting expressing pleasure in the work.
- At 17, Coles won a national writing contest with an essay on the dangers of the melting polar ice cap, published in a British national newspaper.
- Coles declined a local Green Party candidacy to attend college, later joining The Spectator as a graduate trainee.
- She served on the graveyard shift (6 PM to 3 AM) at the Daily Telegraph, the world's largest broadsheet at the time, covering global correspondence and the Lockerbie disaster.
- Coles was posted by The Guardian as New York Bureau Chief, where she developed a lens on the U.S. urban-rural divide and the universal human desire to be heard.
- Coles observes that social media allows for rapid news surfacing but lacks checks and balances, creating a blur between factual reporting and unverified user content.
- In 2006, Coles pioneered "feminism by stealth" at Hearst, editing Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan to merge lifestyle topics with serious global issues like women in the Middle East.
- Coles argues that hiring diversity improves the bottom line but is often hindered by business frenzies and a preference for the "comfortable" over the challenging.
- Coles identifies a significant diversity gap in Silicon Valley, noting fewer women founded companies and a declining pipeline of women entering engineering fields compared to 15 years ago.
- She attributes part of the tech industry's lack of diversity to founders hiring loyal friends rather than diverse talent, exacerbated by low self-awareness in young leadership.
- Coles highlights Snap's "Discover" platform, designed with trusted media brands to provide curated news within a closed, society-focused ecosystem rather than a market-driven one.
- Coles cites Snap's 10th employee as a sociologist to emphasize the company's focus on how users interact rather than purely commercial metrics.
- In her book Love Rules, Coles warns against the "epidemic of loneliness" fostered by dating apps, where digital interactions often escalate too quickly without face-to-face verification.
- Coles advises users to move from text messaging to voice calls within 250–750 messages to validate compatibility and reduce the risk of crushing disappointment.
- Coles uses a treadmill desk, typically walking at 1.5 to 1.8 miles per hour, to maintain productivity and health while working.
- During her tenure at Hearst, Coles adapted print brands like Cosmopolitan for digital platforms like Snapchat, creating content for mobile-first audiences in locations such as Jordanian refugee camps.
- Coles notes that while multi-platform distribution expands reach, the high cost of producing quality journalism challenges current business models.
- In a lightning round, Coles named Twitter as her primary news source and Martha Gellhorn as the journalist she most admires.
- Coles recalls her first interview with O.J. Simpson at the Oxford Union following his acquittal, a moment marked by Simpson shattering a heavy water glass.
- Current reading list for Coles includes Michelle Obama's Becoming, Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs, and Beautiful Boy by David Sheff.
- Coles's top career advice is to "hire to your weakness" and delegate authority to the best talent found.