In Style deputy Butt, has experience at "coalface" of celeb journalism
In Style has lured former More! editor Tammy Butt to be its new deputy editor and Tamasin Doe, editor of the award-winning Harvey Nichols Magazine, to be fashion director.
Butt, who has overseen features on both Heat and Loaded, will be using her contacts to boost In Style’s celebrity coverage of home-grown stars. She takes over from Louise Chunn, who was promoted to editor of In Style in June and made it clear the content would have a more "local" feel.
Chunn said Butt had experience at the "coalface" of celebrity journalism. "Tammy knows local celebrity culture really well and has very good journalistic nous," she said. "Her ideas were outstanding. We are still using quite a lot of American magazine content, but we do need to have local celebrities."
Although Butt’s background is on some of the racier titles, such as Loaded and More!, Chunn said there were no plans to change the tone of In Style.
More recently, Butt has been freelancing for Glamour, Marie Claire and Company, having also stood in at Emap as acting editor of J-17.
"In Style is inherently about the big stars, but Louise is trying to give it a British identity," Butt told Press Gazette. "I love the magazine and anybody who knows me knows I am a big shopping and celebrity addict."
Butt said she was hoping to bolster the British celebrity coverage by featuring a wide range of stars, such as Rachel Weisz, Sadie Frost and Tamzin Outhwaite. She is due to join the title on 16 September.
In Style has been criticised in the past for leaning too heavily on the US edition for ideas and some observers have suggested UK readers were not so enamoured by Hollywood stars. The UK title reported a debut ABC of 151,159 in February which increased by 1.10 per cent to 152,800 this month, but it has yet to mirror the success of its US counterpart, which sells more than 500,000.
Doe will replace Paula Reed, who quit earlier this year. Chunn said Doe, who has worked for the Evening Standard and The Guardian, was a "talented stylist, writer and editor, exactly the kind of multi-skilled fashion journalist I wanted to head up the fashion team."
By Ruth Addicott
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