Interview with Charlotte Duck, Award-Winning Property Journalist & Freelance Editor 

Charlotte Duck is a property journalist who started out working for magazines, including Glamour and Vogue. She moved into property journalism four years ago and now writes for The Evening Standard, The Daily Telegraph, I Paper, The Sunday Times and the NRLA’s Property magazine. She’s interviewed a family who live off-grid and one that lives on a houseboat, talked to celebrities about their homes, highlighted the plight of those trying to sell shared ownership and cladding-affected flats, and written about trends in the property and mortgage markets.

 

After graduating in Geography at Cambridge, can you share the story of what inspired you to then pursue a career in journalism?

I always knew I wanted to be a journalist, so I wrote for two student newspapers and edited my college magazine while studying at university. I then did work experience at Condé Nast’s Savoy Style magazine (for the Savoy hotel group) and the person I was doing the work experience for left and I was lucky enough to get her job. I’ve always loved listening to other people’s life stories and, of course, writing, and my job is a brilliant combination of both.

 

What’s been the most significant moment or milestone in your professional journey that has led to where you are today?

I’d always been interested in property journalism and accidentally became a landlord about 15 years ago so had regularly bored my friends about mortgages and the drier elements of property legislation. In 2020, I decided to make a change in my career. I pitched a few ideas to editors, and they liked them, so it took off from there.

 

Having worked across a number of high-profile media titles and brands, how do you continue to stay motivated and at the top of your game? 

I’m always looking for new, interesting stories and unusual angles. Maybe I’m just incredibly nosey but I find where and how people live fascinating. Property features tend to sit in the ‘Money’ section in most newspapers, alongside articles about investing and pensions, but when someone’s buying or renting a home, it’s often an emotional rather than a financial decision and I love finding out about that.  

 

Operating at the highest level often involves taking risks. But what role do you believe risk-taking plays in achieving success?

It’s easy to stay in your comfort zone but risk-taking builds resilience and is how you grow as a person – even if that risk ends in utter failure. Whenever I’ve taken a risk with my career, it’s usually paid off in the long run, even if that didn’t seem to be the case in the first instance.

 

As an award-winning online editor, what is your communication philosophy, and how do you use this to inspire and motivate those around you?

In my previous job, I interviewed film stars and celebrities, either on the red carpet or at press junkets. I was lucky enough to meet everyone from Kate Winslet to Cameron Diaz but I would only ever get a maximum of five minutes with them, so that has helped me think about how to get the most out of each question you ask, something that’s still useful today.   

In contrast, much of my job now involves talking to people who aren’t used to speaking to journalists, so I always try to make them feel relaxed. I think anyone who puts any part of their life in print is very brave so it’s important as a journalist to be as open with them as you can about the angle of the story and how they will be represented.

 

People say in communication that creativity is key. What would you say is your go-to method for generating new ideas?

I work from home most of the time but it’s always good to get out and meet PRs and editors to chat through ideas. Even if something they suggest isn’t exactly what you’re looking for, it can spark off something else that turns into a fully-fledged idea. For example, a PR, who represents a co-living development approached me about how those living there had improved their mental health through communal living. The Property Editor at the Evening Standard had just published a piece on co-living so wasn’t keen to do another, but it made me think about how we inherently form small communities even when we live amongst millions of people, and I ended up writing a cover feature about this instead.   

 

Can you share a specific setback in your career, and how you utilised that experience to learn, grow and improve?

I’ve been made redundant twice and both times it was the best thing that ever happened to me. The first was in 2005, and I ended up falling into a job in online journalism, which was very much in its infancy at that point. I only planned to stay for six months but I quickly found the fast pace and technical elements really suited me so ended up being there for 11 years! In 2018, I took voluntary redundancy from Glamour magazine and went freelance, and I haven’t looked back. I loved working there, but it was the best decision I ever made and has taken my career in directions I could never have imagined.   

 

Journalism is renowned for tight deadlines, and many successful individuals face challenges in balancing work and personal life. How do you manage this balance, and what strategies do you use to prevent burnout?

When you’re freelance, it’s very easy to let work creep into every second of the day but I’ve tried to make it work around my family life. I’m a real early bird so I’m often up at 5am, which means I can get in at least an hour done before I have to take my three children to school. My brain is pretty useless after 6pm anyway so I’ve learnt to let myself relax in the evening as whatever I write then usually makes no sense anyway.

 

What advice do you have for those aspiring to follow in your footsteps? Are there key principles or lessons you wish you had known when starting your journey??

The advice I’d give aspiring journalists is not to be afraid of picking up the phone. When I started out, the internet was still in its infancy, so we had to do a lot of interviews face to face or over the phone. Nowadays there’s a temptation to hide behind a computer but I always speak to my case studies on the phone or on Zoom because you get so much more (and a more personal story) when you communicate that way.

I suspect most people say this in hindsight, but I wish I’d been a bit more gutsy and confident when starting out. Quite early on in my career, I went for an interview at a B2B property magazine, and it was the worst interview of my life. I gave up on a career writing about property for several years after that, but I should have had more faith in my ability and kept at it.

 

And finally, are they any resources, such as podcasts, books or blogs you’d recommend that you have personally found useful when navigating your career?

Desert Island Discs is a great listen. Lauren Laverne is obviously a fantastic interviewer, and you can learn so much about how to talk to people about their lives from her, but it’s also a great tool is learning about the skills for success. No one’s path is the same but usually it will involve an element of failure and it’s always interesting to hear how successful people come back from that. I also enjoy Phil Spencer’s Property blog for the Telegraph – he gives good, sensible advice.