Jenny Thompson

Jenny has held senior leadership and board level positions throughout her 26 year career in publishing, working for the two largest regional media players in the U.K. After graduating with a degree in Business with languages in Hull she started a career in advertising at the local newspaper and became the Advertisement Director by the age of 29. She was listed in the “Who’s Who of Young Business Entrepreneurs” in 2006.

Over the last decade she has exclusively published luxury and agricultural magazines for Newsquest Media Group. Her role as Magazine Publisher was responsible for editorial strategy, commercial revenue streams, profitability, design and distribution was a first for the organisation. Her leadership role centred on leading and embedding change across editorial, design and commercial teams within the Yorkshire and North East region. Her highlight was meeting Anna Wintour and partnering her York magazine brand with the charity fashion show staged by Anna's niece Ellie, a student at York college.

After successfully creating many luxury periodical magazines she positioned a new national role with the Chairman and CEO, which led to her appointment as MD to take her regional magazine strategy nationally. She also was clear that as a working Mum, with a young son, it wasn’t practical to relocate to London, but that would make the role work from Durham - where she still lives. So from 2017 to 2020 Jenny held the position of  MD Lifestyle magazines and was responsible for the rapid 'scale up' luxury magazine strategy for the group She is credited with growing their fledgling 4 regional lifestyle magazines to a 35 publication powerhouse of “Living” lifestyle magazines across the U.K. 

Jenny believes her success comes from working collaboratively with multi-disciplined teams. Being able to lead with conviction is one of her core values. Her values centre around an enthusiastic, collaborative approach, where the strategy is clear and everyone knows what part they play in delivering it. “This  ultimately drives bottom line results, where people engagement is at the core” says Jenny. 

Adding value to people and process is pivotal for Jenny. After falling ill mid 2019, Jenny reassessed further her work life balance and after making a recovery she returned to work in January 2020, but encouraged her employer to let her go and in July 2020 she left so she could set up her own business. “I just felt the time was right in my career, pandemic or not, to offer my broad skill set to those who need it - I offer luxury businesses ways to accelerate their brand through modern marketing, pr, communications and branding solutions. Couple this with my strong business acumen for accelerating growth and media strategy expertise I believe I have a very bespoke service to offer”. Jenny is building a boutique marketing agency and enjoying working with a variety of clients in the luxury interiors, niche magazines and land estate markets.