Boston, Massachusetts, United States
I’m an award-winning lifestyle journalist, editor, and content director with a decade of experience covering real estate, travel, design, and more. As a full-time freelancer, I write and edit for a variety of publications and brands. My work has appeared in the Boston Globe, Travel + Leisure, Architectural Digest, Yankee Magazine, Real Simple, the Wall Street Journal, Boston magazine, and beyond. Previously, I was the Deputy Lifestyle Director at Apartment Therapy, where I shaped the editorial strategy for the real estate vertical. I edited daily news stories, robust tentpole packages, and reported features while managing a staff editor and a team of freelance writers. See more of my work at madelinebilis.com and maybe even hit the trails with my book, 50 Hikes in Eastern Massachusetts.
I'm a contributing editor at Boston magazine, a travel correspondent for Forbes Vetted, and the author of a hiking guidebook called 50 Hikes in Eastern Massachusetts. My work has appeared in the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, Travel + Leisure, Architectural Digest, Condé Nast Traveler, Real Simple, TIME, Thrillist, Vogue, Yankee Magazine, Forbes Vetted, Slate, The Spruce, The Infatuation, Time Out, Edible Boston, Nantucket Magazine, Realtor.com, ARCHITECT Magazine, Boston Home, Modern Luxury Interiors, boston.com, newengland.com, and many other publications.
- Edited stories in Travel + Leisure's digital archive, revamping them with an eye toward evergreen relevance, as well as fact-checking editors’ work and making recommendations for updates - Drove additional traffic to stories by improving post interlinking; conducting keyword research and SERP analysis; and optimizing metadata, title tags, and meta descriptions - Provided feedback for quality team editors, reviewing their work to ensure it aligned with the brand's tone and style
- Identified home trends and topics to cover on the site’s real estate and lifestyle verticals each month, creating strategies for growth and surpassing vertical-specific goals - Oversaw editorial calendars, balanced the department’s budget, kept traffic on track to goal, and enforced deadlines within an optimized workflow I created for AT’s lifestyle team in Asana - Spearheaded special packages such as Suburbs Week, which won an award in the “Best Multi-Platform Package or Series” category from the National Association of Real Estate Editors - Managed one staff editor and a roster of 30+ freelance writers, who collectively produced more than 100 traffic-driving stories per month
- Doubled the real estate vertical’s traffic over the course of two years by assigning, editing, updating, and writing up to 60 SEO-driven stories per month - Recruited and trained a diverse team of 30+ freelance writers, assigning them stories and coaching their talent as beat reporters and content strategists - Monitored traffic patterns with Parse.ly and Google Analytics. Prepared monthly analytics reports, delivering insights to the editorial and growth teams to identify opportunities for new creative projects and social media moments
- Pitched, wrote, edited, and fact-checked between five and 10 service-focused stories each month for the print magazine while writing ancillary stories for the website - Co-edited one of the brand’s most highly anticipated cover features, Where to Go in 2020, and led its expanded digital launch to millions of readers - Served as the point of contact for the magazine’s “A-List” of global travel advisors while providing data organization and research support for T+L franchises such as the World’s Best Awards
- Led home and property coverage across print and digital, launching a high-performing series called “Either-Or,” which compares city real estate to suburban properties of the same price - Edited a team of freelance writers for the home and travel verticals, working together to produce a robust slate of reported neighborhood guides and a successful weekend getaway series - Drove traffic to digital stories while managing the site’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, bringing Boston Magazine’s Instagram audience over the 100,000 follower threshold
- Increased pageviews to the home and property vertical by four times its previous amount over the course of a year by writing four stories per day and taking original photos - Produced print stories for the website, Photoshopping new graphics and adding interactive tools such as photo sliders and hoverable images to help reported features reach a wider audience