The man believed to be Britain’s longest-serving editor is preparing to step down after his 80th birthday.
Satish Kumar was appointed editor of the climate and environment focused Resurgence Magazine in 1973, now known as Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine, before becoming its editor-in-chief in 2010. Meaning that at 79 he has held an editor’s post at the magazine for 42 years – more than half his life.
Other key figures to have held long editorships include C P Scott, who edited the Manchester Guardian (which became The Guardian) from 1872 until 1929. Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy magazine in 1953, remains its editor-in-chief.
In August 2014, Press Gazette reported the retirement of Drew Cochrane as editor of the Largs and Millport Weekly News after 40 years in the post.
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Kumar, who celebrates turning 80 on 9 August this year, will continue to work for The Resurgence Trust under the new title of Editor Emeritus while Greg Neale takes over as editor-in-chief.
Said Kumar: “It has been my pleasure, privilege and honour to serve Resurgence.”
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Neale said: “It is an honour and privilege to be asked to follow in Satish’s footsteps. I’m looking forward to taking our titles forward to greater success as we enter our next half-century, at a time when the causes of environmental sustainability, peace and social justice have never been so pressing.”
Kumar’s departure coincides with the magazine’s 50th anniversary. Launched in May 1966 Resurgence claims it was first published as a “radical peace magazine” amid the changing landscape of the 1960s.
According to a spokesman it has survived “without corporate support or ownership by a press magnate” and causes originally championed in the magazine have since become mainstream.
Contributors over the years have included the Prince of Wales, the Dalai Larma, singer Annie Lenox, broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby and garden show presenter Monty Donn.
In 2006 The Resurgence Trust was formed as an educational charity and publishes Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine and associated websites resurgence.org and theecologist.org.
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