Ben Preston, the executive editor at The Independent, has today been named the new editor of Radio Times.
Publisher BBC Magazines said Preston would join the listings magazine later this summer.
He replaces Gill Hudson, who has edited Radio Times since 2002 and is leaving next month to become editor-in-chief of Reader’s Digest UK.
In her new role, Hudson replaces Sarah Sands, the former Sunday Telegraph editor who has now joined the London Evening Standard as deputy editor.
Preston joined The Independent in June last year. He previously spent eight years as deputy editor of The Times, include a nine-month stint as acting editor between 2000 and 2001.
He began his career in 1987 as a reporter on the Bristol Evening Post and went on to work for the Press Association.
BBC Magazines group editor director Nicholas Brett said in a statement: “Radio Times is Britain’s most famous magazine brand, a truly big beast that in many ways resembles a newspaper, so we’re thrilled to have one of the UK’s most brilliant and visionary newspaper executives leading it forwards.
“At such an exciting time for the brand in its various guises, including online and interactive formats, it’s great to have someone of Ben’s experience in charge.”
Radio Times recorded an average weekly circulation of 1,023,255 in the latest set of consumer magazine ABCs, covering the second half of 2008.
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