Category: Industry News

The ceremony will recognise and reward the best British riders, racers, products and people involved in UK road cycling.

The Awards will combine Cycling Weekly’s Editor’s Choice Awards, which acknowledge the products that have taken the market by storm, and the crowning of the coveted British Rider of the Year title.

The Cycling Weekly Award winners will be chosen by an expert judging panel comprised of the Cycling Weekly team and names from the world of cycling, as well as by reader vote.

Simon Richardson, Editor of Cycling Weekly, said: “You only have to look through previous winners of our coveted British Rider of the Year title to realise what a who’s who of cycling it is. I can’t wait to expand this out to more categories and to celebrate the winners in style.”

Sean Igoe, Head of the Cycling Commercial Team, added: “I’m absolutely delighted to announce this launch. A lot of hard work has already happened behind-the-scenes to make sure this is the biggest awards ever seen in the world of cycling.

“Road cycling has seen huge growth and it's an amazing sport to be involved with for so many reasons. I’ve always been amazed that there's never been a beautiful ceremony to celebrate road cycling until now,” he continued.

The Cycling Weekly Awards ceremony will be held at 8 Northumberland Avenue, a luxury central London venue. This black tie event will be hosted and attended by renowned cyclists and will be live streamed globally.

Cycling is the UK’s third most popular sport. After 126 years of publication, Cycling Weekly remains at the heart of Britain’s cycling scene – with a reach of over 5,000,000 cyclists a month through print, online, social media and events.

Tsirkas (pictured right) will join from Initiative, the UK media planning and buying agency, where she is Group Client Director and is responsible for clients including Amazon Fashion, Patek Philippe and Beko.

Morriss (pictured left) will join from Oath, where she is Agency Group Lead for WPP. Before that, she worked as Head of Agency Sales at AOL.

They will be responsible for driving Hearst’s agency relationships across the Hearst business, leading and facilitating more partnership-led solutions with greater customer engagement.

Jane Wolfson, Chief Agency Officer of Hearst UK, said: “Sarah and Joni have a wealth of experience across multiple disciplines. Their strong commercial and strategic focus, coupled with excellent relationships, mean they will be a great addition to Hearst. They join the business at an exciting time as we look to drive even deeper engagement with agencies and clients.”

Morriss commented on her new role: “I am absolutely thrilled to be joining Hearst and feel truly spoilt to be working with such an amazing portfolio of brands. As an industry, everything we do is built on engaging consumers, and Hearst has the enviable benefit of a legion of brand fans across multiple passion points. I cannot wait to leverage these rich audiences in new and exciting ways for advertisers – from display, through to events, accreditation and licensing.”

Tsirkas added: “The role at Hearst was an opportunity too good to turn down. The vision the team have for evolving the business is an exciting one and I want to take a forefront position. Hearst UK has brands to be envious of and they are available across multiple touchpoints. Hearst UK is uniquely placed to deliver partnerships that cannot be matched by other media owners.”

Tsirkas and Morriss will begin their roles in January 2018. They will be working alongside Group Agency Director Matt Downs, who joined from Future Publishing in October 2016, and Group Brand Director and Director of Client Sales Matt Hayes.

The partnership aims to drive awareness of smart meters as a key way of managing the cost of energy in the home for millennials across the audiences of Cosmopolitan, Digital Spy and Men’s Health.

Hearst UK has created four videos on “The Power of 10p”, in which brand-specific challenges are set to find out how far consumers can get on 10p’s worth of energy.

The campaign will be supported by print and digital branded content articles across Cosmopolitan and Men’s Health and digital branded content articles on Digital Spy. It will also be promoted heavily via social media activation.

Jane Wolfson, Chief Agency Officer of Hearst UK, said: “Hearst can reach and engage millennials at scale. Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health and Digital Spy have highly-valuable audiences and we are delighted to partner with Smart Energy GB to help drive awareness to these key consumers.”

Gavin Sheppard, Director of Marketing at Smart Energy GB, commented: “We know that engaging young people with a subject as manifestly boring as energy metering technology is a real challenge. So we didn’t try to do that.

“Instead, we needed a content strand that would bring to life not what smart meters are, but what they can do, and would make energy use tangible and meaningful to people with more interesting things on their mind. We needed a media partner that could reach different groups of young people around different passion points. Hearst provided us with both.”

The first Cosmopolitan video can be viewed here. The further three videos will be rolled out this month.

RADAR (Reporters and Data and Robots) was set up to meet an increasing demand for fact-based insights into local communities by using Natural Language Generation (NLG) software to create up to 30,000 localised stories a month from open data sets.

The service received launch funding in July from Google’s Digital News Initiative Innovation Fund – a €150m commitment from the company to stimulate and support innovation in digital journalism across Europe’s news industry.

RADAR has at its heart a team of reporters finding interesting stories in open data sets, then writing these stories and crafting NLG templates to localise them for hundreds of markets. The project builds on this core to develop advanced database and distribution tools.

Gary Rogers, Editor-in-Chief at Urbs Media, said: “We believe these are the first automated local news stories published in established news brands anywhere in the world. We’re delighted to be up and running with a great user group who are already helping to steer our thinking on the topics and style of the stories we generate.”

A closed pilot began at the end of November, involving 35 regional titles from 14 publishing groups, including Archant, Independent News and Media, Iliffe Media, Johnston Press, Newsquest, Midland News Association and Trinity Mirror. Feedback from this initial set of brands is helping to shape the ongoing development of RADAR ahead of a six-month open trial next year, which will include hyperlocal publishers and broadcast outlets.

Tim Williams, Managing Editor at Archant, welcomed the new content: “RADAR is an exciting new service and a very welcome positive boost for Archant’s newsrooms, giving us access to data sets and information that are enabling us to share important stories with our readers.”

Multiple versions of four stories were distributed in the first week of copy testing. The first focussed on trends in birth registrations across the UK, specifically how many children were registered by married, cohabiting or single parents, based on figures from the Office of National Statistics.

This was followed by stories on cancelled operations across England extracted from NHS data, a breakdown on social mobility and life chances for disadvantaged children based on data from the government’s Social Mobility Commission and localised Department of Transport data on average A Road delays.

Stories have already appeared in 20 daily and weekly titles, both online and in print. As the pilot is gradually stepped up over the coming months, in parallel the RADAR team will be introducing new channels to distribute these large volumes of stories to local news outlets, including PA Explore, the new customer portal being developed by the PA. RADAR will then start to develop graphics and animated video to distribute with localised copy.

Pete Clifton, Editor-in-Chief at the PA, said: “I’m pleased to see our customers actively engaging with the content. Their feedback is providing us with valuable insights as we scale up production to reach our target of 30,000 stories each month for a much broader user base.”

RADAR will rely on a core editorial team of five to identify, write, template and edit the data-driven stories. Two reporters, Niamh McIntyre and Ralph Blackburn, have been recruited to join Rogers.

McIntyre joined RADAR from the data desk at The Guardian, which she joined in June 2017 as a Google News Lab fellow. She has also worked for the PA on the agency’s election coverage and for The Independent as a freelance writer.

Blackburn was formerly Chief Reporter at Archant, writing for the Ilford Recorder, Romford Recorder and Wanstead & Woodford Recorder since February 2015.

As the magazine prepares to enter its 30th anniversary year, it is continuing to invest in high-end, agenda-setting journalism and fashion coverage. Appointments include significant additions to the fashion and political teams.

GQ has appointed Luke Day (pictured) as Fashion Director with immediate effect. He also retains his position as Editor of GQ Style, a role he has held since February 2015. He was previously Fashion Director of the title.

Prior to this, Day was Fashion Editor of Arena HOMME+ and Fashion Director of Attitude magazine. He has worked with brands including Topman, MSGM and Tommy Hilfiger.

Day commented, “I’m honoured to be extending my role within the GQ family as the newly appointed Fashion Director of GQ. I feel proud to be given this prestigious opportunity at such an exciting time for the magazine and for Condé Nast. I am looking forward to working even more closely with Dylan Jones and his world class GQ team as we continue to lead the way in men’s style.”

Teo van den Broeke has been appointed as Style and Grooming Director of British GQ. He is currently Style Director of British Esquire and Deputy Editor of Esquire’s luxury biannual The Big Black Book and the title’s annual Big Watch Book.

Jones remarked: “I’m delighted that Luke will now be working across GQ, as well as continuing to edit GQ Style – his ability to speak visually to a wide audience, while also showcasing cutting edge creativity and finding the most exciting new talent, is a rare combination.

“I’m also thrilled to be welcoming Teo to the team, who will bring his considerable experience to both print and digital. GQ is the most important luxury men’s title in the country, with fashion at its heart, and all these additions to the British GQ fashion team will further reinforce the brand’s position in the market place.”

Previously van den Broeke worked for Wallpaper* and he has written for The Times, the Evening Standard, The Telegraph, The Guardian, Matches Fashion and Mr Porter, as well as giving regular talks and seminars about men’s style for brands ranging from Louis Vuitton to Gieves & Hawkes. He will take up his new position from January 2, 2018.

Van den Broeke added, "GQ is the foremost men's media brand in the world and I am both excited and honoured to join the brilliant British team as Style and Grooming Director. I look forward to a long and illustrious tenure at this prestigious magazine."

Elgar Johnson has been promoted to Deputy Editor of GQ Style. He also remains in his role as Fashion Director of the title. With a background in modelling, Johnson began his styling career assisting the legendary Simon Foxton before joining i-D magazine, where over four years he moved up the ranks to become Senior Fashion Editor.

Johnson joined GQ Style from Man About Town, where he held the position of Fashion Director.

Sophie Clark has been promoted to Fashion Editor of GQ Style. Previously Sophie was Junior Fashion Editor on the magazine.

Grace Gilfeather remains Fashion Editor of British GQ and Carlotta Constant, previously Acting Style and Grooming Editor, has been announced as Junior Fashion Editor.

Nick Carvell, previously Associate Style Editor of GQ, will continue writing for the magazine and website as a Contributing Fashion Editor. Tom Stubbs, renowned and distinguished Menswear Stylist and Fashion Writer, has been announced as Contributing Fashion Editor. He and Carvell join a line-up of Contributing Fashion Editors, including Lou Stoppard.

Matt Kelly, Editor of The New European, joins GQ.co.uk as Contributing Editor. Guto Harri, former BBC Chief Political Correspondent and Communications Director for Mayor of London Boris Johnson’s administration at London City Hall, and Journalist Tanya Gold are also announced as Contributing Political Editors.

Matthew D’Ancona remains Political Editor of the magazine, with Alastair Campbell as Chief Political Interviewer.

Anna Conrad has joined the British GQ team as News and Features Editor for GQ.co.uk. GQ’s online audience has increased by 8% year on year, with the platform receiving an average of almost three million unique users per month, based on Google Analytics for the August to October 2017 period.

Using the FourFourTwo team’s expertise in both football and magazine making, GOAL! is a compelling mix of interviews, amazing facts, insight, humour, quizzes and posters.

Edited by FourFourTwo’s Global Editor-in-Chief David Hall, the 64-page magazine is targeted at seven to 11-year-olds.

Andy Jackson, FourFourTwo’s Global Brand Director, said: “After months of planning, we couldn't be happier with the pilot issue of GOAL! We've delivered on our objective: to create a different kind of football magazine for young fans that challenges the traditional print executions in this category.

“GOAL! sits naturally and comfortably alongside FourFourTwo, sharing the common core values of access, insight, passion and humour reimagined for a younger audience. We aimed to create a magazine that young fans would enjoy, that showed respect for them as fans and didn't dumb down the game and the players they love. Plus, we wanted a magazine that their parents were happy with them reading.

“The early response has been overwhelmingly positive from all areas – most importantly from the young fans and players who have been part of our early sampling activities."

Alastair Lewis, Group Director of Haymarket Consumer Media, said: “Innovation and new launches in print are a rare commodity these days. I am delighted to see FourFourTwo develop what we hope will be an exciting new addition to the portfolio. This pilot issue underlines our commitment to high quality research and analysis of our core markets to develop new products and services that delight and serve our audiences, on whichever platforms they expect to find us.

“Our digital, global growth on FourFourTwo has been immense in the last two years and we hope that GOAL! will help to bring through the next generation of discerning football fans.”

The pilot issue is bagged free with the January edition of FourFourTwo magazine, which is on sale now. It is also being distributed throughout December via Cafe Football’s sites at Westfield Stratford in London and Old Trafford football stadium and the National Football Museum in Manchester.

Hundreds of copies have additionally been distributed to schools and football clubs to help gather feedback for forthcoming issues.

Peate has a wealth of experience across Haymarket Network and the content marketing landscape, having worked within the company for several years.

She spent six years working across the medical brands and medical education projects within Haymarket Business Media, before moving to the consumer division to publish Pacemaker.

At Haymarket Network, she has driven new business and managed clients as diverse as Sony and the London 2012 Olympic Games ceremonies.

Costello commented: “I’m absolutely delighted to appoint Issie to this key role as Director of our world-class content marketing agency, Network. She understands the constantly-evolving content marketing requirements of our major clients better than anyone – and she will be leading an incredibly talented team as it enters a new phase of growth.”

As Group Account Director, Peate most recently headed up the growth of Haymarket’s Professional Associations Group, with major clients including the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply and the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development.

She will be working with the Network leadership team to focus on the growth opportunities for Haymarket’s award-winning content marketing agency as it develops its roster of blue chip clients, which includes the International Association of Athletics Federations, Volkswagen and the British Army.

“I couldn’t be more pleased to be working with the brilliant Network team to develop the next chapter in the agency’s story. Our content creators are among the best in the business – and our client list underlines that. With a focus on growth and delivering best-in-class client service, I’m excited to get on with the business of developing and delivering world-class solutions for our clients,” Peate added.

She takes up her new role with immediate effect, reporting to Costello.

Under Reardon’s seven-year Editorship, Tatler has captured the zeitgeist and charted the influx of new wealth and shifts in aristocratic fortunes. The magazine has also tackled domestic abuse and championed gay women.

In 2014, BBC2 broadcast a three-part documentary, Posh People: Inside Tatler, featuring Reardon and other staff members. It has now been viewed by nearly seven million people.

Other innovative developments of the brand under Reardon’s leadership include successful B2C events, as well as the annual Schools Guide and Awards, all of which have capitalised on Tatler’s authority in the education sector. Reardon has also steered Tatler into the digital age, growing unique users and page views tenfold and tripling the brand’s following on social media channels.

Nicholas Coleridge, Chairman of Condé Nast Britain, commented: “Kate has been a first class Editor of Tatler, producing a magazine of wit, mischief and glamour. She has an instinctive understanding of her readers. You feel her personality on every page.”

Reardon began her career as a 19-year-old Fashion Assistant at American Vogue, and at 21 was made the Fashion Director of Tatler – the youngest ever at Condé Nast. She was a Founding Advisory Board Member of Net-a-Porter.com, has written three separate columns for The Times – which named her one of Britain’s best writers – and spent a decade as a Contributing Editor at Vanity Fair.

She remarked on her resignation: “I’ve had the time of my life and will be forever grateful to Jonathan Newhouse for the extraordinary experience of being a Condé Nast Editor. I’ve also had the immense good fortune to work with some mind-blowingly talented, hardworking and funny people – it really has been a joy. I will share the news of my new venture when it’s appropriate.”

In 2007 Reardon founded the women’s community site TopTips.com. The business, which was well ahead of its time with a user-generated content model, was a multi-platform success – generating a column in the Daily Mail, a weekly slot on ITV breakfast television and two bestselling books. In 2011 Reardon returned to Tatler as Editor.

Deputy Editor Gavanndra Hodge will oversee the title in the interim and a successor will be announced in the New Year.

The light and dark themed covers, featuring Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) respectively, are the latest in Empire’s portfolio of Star Wars exclusives.

The magazine has opened its prized archives for the first time since 1997 to produce a bespoke 40 years of Star Wars supplement focussing on the original trilogy. Also included with the issue is an exclusive LucasFilm double-sided art print.

Commenting on the issue, Empire Editor-in-Chief Terri White, said: “This month’s issue is a feast of goodies, from our exclusive Star Wars covers, supplement and art print, to two killer specials in the mag: our Oscars extravaganza and Review of the Year, including interviews with Nicole Kidman, Ridley Scott, Elisabeth Moss, Armie Hammer, Jordan Peele, Gary Oldman, Margot Robbie, Taika Waititi, Regina Hall, Martin McDonagh and Joe Wright. Oh, and the Hoff!”

Empire Digital Editor-in-Chief James Dyer has spoken to the main cast members to find out what fans can expect when the film opens in cinemas on December 14.

This new issue builds on Empire’s long and special relationship with Star Wars, which has included a host of exclusive and innovative styles of publishing.

In September, Empire published two covers, with the special subscriber cover making use of a holographic sheen to show the hand of Ridley's Rey handing a lightsaber to the robotic hand of Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker.

In November 2016 the magazine published six collectable 3D covers, showcasing characters from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In 2005 the magazine joined forces with LucasFilm to publish a limited-edition “breathing” Darth Vader cover, which produced sound using chip technology embedded in its spine.

For the latest issue, readers can look forward to exclusive interviews, never seen before exclusive pictures, a comprehensive review of the year, including Empire’s Top 20 Films of 2017, and a look ahead to the potential 2018 Oscar nominees.

The latest edition of Empire hits newsstands on November 30.

Steinherr’s remit will extend across digital and print, editorial and commercial, as well as the Glamour Beauty Club and other brand extensions, including the Glamour Beauty Festival.

She will work with Deborah Joseph, Chief Content Officer, on the beauty vision and content across the brand.

Joseph commented: “We are excited that Alessandra will continue working for Glamour in this new capacity. She is very highly respected in the beauty industry, regarded as the influencers’ influencer, and her expertise and authority will help deliver this next phase of the Glamour brand as the ultimate beauty destination for UK consumers and advertisers.”

Steinherr was previously Beauty Director for Glamour magazine, a role she held since 2007. Prior to this, she was Beauty Director of Cosmopolitan for six years.

“I am passionate about exciting, accurate, sometimes surprising, but always expert, beauty reporting. This is something I have endeavoured to stay true to over my past 10 years at Glamour. I am looking forward to continuing this editorial excellence and holding myself to the same exacting standards in my new role, while combining it with my love of social media and engaging our readers in fresh ways through the Glamour Beauty Club and the ultimate beauty destination, the Glamour Beauty Festival,” Steinherr said of her new role.

The recently launched Glamour Beauty Club received 50,000 sign-ups in the first five weeks and now has over 75,000 members. The Glamour Beauty Festival will return for the third time in March 2018, with tickets going on sale in early December.

Beauty content is the leading traffic generator on the Glamour website, and is an area the audience has great confidence in. In a recent survey, 89% said they trust Glamourmagazine.co.uk for beauty advice and inspiration.

Further appointments made to the new Glamour team include: Sagal Mohammed as Celebrity and Entertainment Content Editor, Carolina De Matos Nicolao as Junior Social Editor and Chelsea Hughes as Picture/Multimedia Producer. Lisa Jenkins joins as Sales Executive and Samantha McMeekin has joined as Beauty Content Writer, having previously been Online Editor at Insideout.com.au and Senior Content Producer for beautyheaven before that.

Jade Muscrop has been appointed Social Media Manager, taking up her new position from December 4. She was part of the launch team and led the socially-driven content for Pretty52, LADbible’s female channel.

Glamour’s digital transformation will debut in early 2018. Glamour has also altered its print frequency from monthly to bi-annually, with the first print issue to hit newsstands in March to coincide with the Glamour Beauty Festival.