Southall
Sue Matthias, former assistant editor of The Independent on Sunday, is to join BBC Worldwide’s women’s glossy Eve as consulting editor.
The news coincided with this week’s shock resignation of the magazine’s launch publisher, Justine Southall, who has been poached by the National Magazine Company.
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There she will take over from Tim Lucas as publishing director of Company, She and Zest. Lucas moves to become director of business development and ad marketing.
Southall, who said staff were surprised when she broke the news on Wednesday, said: "I was so focused on Eve that I hadn’t considered moving.
I love the women’s magazine market.
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I have launched Eve and taken it to a point where it is established but Eve is only one magazine and while the BBC has plans to grow the portfolio, it is not something that is going to happen immediately." Of the appointment of Matthias – recently associate editor of the Daily and Sunday Express – Eve editorial director Gill Hudson said: "I talked to her when I was setting up Eve and thought she was spot-on, but she was well embroiled at the Express.
"When it looked like she might be leaving I was on the phone instantly." Hudson said Matthias had the intelligence, attitude, contacts and the right broadsheet/tabloid mix.
"We’re smartening up while everyone else is dumbing down," she said.
Hudson said she was confident that Eve, the biggest launch to date from BBC Worldwide, would post a good ABC in August.
By Ruth Addicott
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