Music maestro Ellen wins Editors’ Editor accolade

By Alyson Fixter

Mark Ellen, editor of The Word, walked away with the top prize at
the British Society of Magazine Editors (BSME)’s prestigious annual
awards ceremony on Monday.

Ellen, a veteran of launches such as Q, Empire, Heat and Mojo,
picked up the Editors’ Editor Award for a career spanning more than 25
years in the industry.

Mark Frith, editor of Emap’s Heat, won the Mark Boxer Award for services to publishing.

And
in the Men’s Magazine section, Adam Mattera, editor of gay lifestyle
title Attitude, beat nominees from FHM, Arena, Men’s Health and Esquire
to win the Editor of the Year Award in his category.

Ellen said
he was “thrilled” to win the overall gong, particularly as his
publishing company, Development Hell, was an independent.

He
added: “The six of us at Development Hell have been lucky enough to
have had some success in the past when we worked for Emap and to have
picked up the odd award as well, but I simply can’t tell you how it
feels to win when you’re out in the publishing world on your own.

“The Word went into profit in the summer and we bought Mixmag last week so, at last, our little empire is flying.

“And this award is the cherry on a cake that currently appears to made almost entirely out of cherries.”

Mattera,
whose win was the surprise of the night, told Press Gazette: “It was
fantastic to be up against such stiff competition and to win.

“It’s
been a brilliant year for the magazine and we’ve had some obvious
highlights like our historical cover story with Tony Blair and the
first exclusive interview with Madonna in her current press campaign.

“We are a small team with a small budget but we always have big ambitions and we’re very proud we won.

“We were surprised but think we deserved it.”

Full
list of winners 2005 Editors’ Editor of the Year: Mark Ellen, The Word
(Development Hell); Editors of the Year: business & professional
magazines (non-weekly) – Matthew Gwyther, Management Today (Haymarket);
business & professional magazines (weekly) – Phil Johnson, Pulse
(CMPi); entertainment magazines – Conor McNicholas, NME (IPC); contract
magazines (business readership)n – Tim Hulse, Business Life (Cedar);
contract magazines (consumer readership) – William Sitwell, Waitrose
Food Illustrated (John Brown Citrus); current affairs magazines – Bill
Emmott, The Economist; lifestyle magazines – Sarah Miller, CondÃ© Nast
Traveller (CondÃ© Nast); men’s magazines – Adam Mattera, Attitude
(Remnant); newspaper magazines – Judy McGuire, News of the World’s
Sunday Magazine (News International); special interest magazines –
Michael Harvey, Top Gear (BBC Magazines); women’s magazines
(non-weekly) – Trish Halpin, Red (Hachette); women’s magazines (weekly)
– Jane Johnson, Closer (Emap); youth & children’s magazines, comics
or fanzines – Lisa Smosarski, Bliss (Emap); launch of the year – June
Smith-Sheppard, Pick Me Up (IPC); magazine website of the year – Damian
Carrington, Newscientist.com (RBI); innovation of the year – Colin
Kennedy, Empire (Emap); brand building initiative of the year – Marcus
Fairs, Icon (Media 10); Fiona Macpherson new editor of the year –
Annabel Brog, Sugar.