BBC Magazines has lured Christine Hayes, editor of IPC’s Bride To Be in Australia, to be editor of its forthcoming food launch, codenamed Project Olive.
The title is due to hit newsstands next month, overseen by editorial director and editor-in-chief of BBC Good Food Orlando Murrin. Hayes will join the team on 10 November.
Having spent more than 15 years working in magazines in the UK and Australia, Hayes’ most recent launch was the Australian edition of 25 Beautiful Homes. Before moving to Australia, she edited Wedding and Home magazine in London, and worked for Looks, More! and Best.
She said: “It needed to be a dream job offer that would tempt me to swap an Australian summer for a London winter and I’ve surely got it with the editor job for Project Olive.”
Murrin said the BBC had interviewed candidates in the UK and the US before opting for Hayes.
“Christine’s real passion for the subject, creativity and imagination shone through. “She’s part of a new generation of editors who are great craftsmen – but who also have a real commercial bite. We’re over the moon that she’s crossing hemispheres to join us,” he added.
The title will be backed by a £1.5m launch campaign including a tie-in with a national newspaper.
Hayes’ appointment follows the signing in August of Sue Price, former editor of M&S Magazine and Lulu Grimes, a former assistant to Delia Smith. Price is launch project editor.
By Ruth Addicott
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