Charlie Baker

The Fence

I am delighted, and a little shocked, to be nominated for this award. But I am pleased with the work that The Fence has done these last twelve months, and this feels like a breakthrough year for a project that started in 2019.

From a journalistic standpoint, a highlight has been publishing Mark Blacklock’s investigation into a multi-millionaire paedophile who bought a private school and moved into his own home, a piece that has since been picked up nearly all the major broadsheets – there is, sadly, much more to be told about this story. In Issue 16, we led with a dispatch from Ukraine, where our anonymous correspondent detailed how the country’s LGBT community have continued to hook up even as the bombs fall.

We are a very small team: it is just me working full-time, on a very small annual budget, so to publish longform features of such ambition at such a low cost is something that makes me very proud.

I am very lucky to work with an extraordinarily capable team of editors on a part-time basis: Kieran Morris, Róisín Lanigan, Séamas O’Reilly and Fergus Butler-Gallie. Together, we have helped develop a distinctive tone for the publication, one that is informed, wry yet approachable. I know that many editors and agents look to The Fence to spot the stars of tomorrow – Harriet Rix’s skewering of Guy Shrubsole’s book led to a significant and well-deserved book deal for her.

As a print-first publication, we publish a beautiful magazine every quarter, as Graydon Carter generously describing our publication as ‘the illegitimate offspring of Private Eye and Evelyn Waugh – with a bloodline that stretches back to Gillray and Rowlandson’, yet this year I have also helped expand our digital offering, which has brought in new readers in what is a fiercely competitive marketplace.

Current affairs publications are often bogged down by covering the ‘culture wars’, and I am really happy that we have managed to attract dedicated subscribers from both sides of the political aisle, and provide content that appeals to readers of all ages, while continuing to champion younger voices.

Nicola Jeal

The Times Magazine

Nicola Jeal has made the Times magazine a must-read. She has made it famous for agenda-setting features, empathetic personal stories, probing celebrity interviews and meticulously researched profiles that often shed new light on the social issues of the day. But above all it is entertaining and fun, warm and celebratory, high- and lowbrow, packed with surprises and stunning photography. In print it aims to be a perfectly-formed package each week, online it enhances the Times brand and subscriber experience with daily, great long reads. The magazine is now a digital first, as well as print, with content across the week, many stories appearing on the homepage and proving some of the most-read articles of the week, and often of the month. Nicola aims to commission stories that will result in countless news stories picked up by the main news outlets in UK and abroad and trend on Apple news. She always has her finger on the zeitgeist, focussing on growing the digital audience for long-form magazine content.

The big interviews are the most-talked, whether it is cyclist Bradley Wiggins opening up about his sexual abuse; Greta Thunberg admitting to Caitlin Moran that she has to live like a monk so she can never be accused of double standards; or the ‘Bride of Wildenstein, socialite Jocelyn, who has not been seen or heard for 25 years, talking about her life after being vilified.

Nicola strives to produce a magazine with the glossy feel of a monthly married with the news-reactive content of a daily. It is that winning combination that sets it apart.

Kate Oppenheim

BII News

I was blown away to have been nominated for this award. To be the editor of the BII News magazine is a pleasure and an honour. Everyone involved is passionate about creating a top class magazine that is a must read for our industry. From the articles to the brilliant design, most ably directed and executed by Basia Paczesna-Vercueil, BII News magazine serves its business audience of hospitality professionals extremely well.

Having been an editor of weeklies and even a daily publication in the past, working on a quarterly is not without its challenges – not least in ensuring that the content remains topical, fresh and relevant for our target audience. Part of our success is in the fact that we understand and have empathy with our readership. I’ve edited magazines in the hospitality and retail sectors for more than 30 years, and industry experts and professionals are happy to be interviewed for articles, sharing their insight and forecasts almost on an exclusive basis. And we have no shortage of ideas, thanks to our upbeat and dynamic production meetings, with plenty of input from the amazingly pro-active BII team, under the leadership of Steve Alton and Molly Davis.

In this digital age, I feel immensely privileged to be editing a print magazine.

I am a huge advocate for print, especially in the business-to-business sector and hospitality industry, where operators tend to be out and about, or customer facing, therefore emails and digital content too quickly disappear down into the bowels of the mail box, to remain forever unread.

BII News looks good and feels great. It’s a magazine that makes you want to pick it up and read it. The weight and quality of paper is something we regularly review, under the guidance of Lee Doney, our account manager at our printers, Deltor. Deltor really knows how to look after its clients, being pro-active in notifying us of any impending price hikes, while offering solutions at every turn.

Our magazine is produced by an enthusiastic and extremely capable team, and should I win this award, it is because of them.

Gideon Spanier

Campaign, PodPod

I wanted to be an editor since I was a schoolboy when I drew my own newspaper front pages. Now I have a dream job as I oversee two titles and work with the brilliant teams who produce them.

I believe our journalists should love what they do, but publishing trusted, original journalism is a serious business, which has become more important in the age of artificial intelligence and unreliable online content.

I am proud Campaign and PodPod grew in different ways in the last year. My main focus was advertising title Campaign where I have been editor-in-chief since 2020.

We kept up our record for breaking scoops such as John Lewis’ split from ad agency Adam & Eve/DDB and produced more in-depth tentpole features such as the data-rich agency School Reports.

We also innovated. I devised a sold-out generative AI summit that attracted 200 paying guests and I hosted a daily podcast from the Cannes Lions festival, which drove record monthly downloads. I believe an editorial leader should have a “voice” to support their brand.

Crucially, Campaign’s two-tier subscription strategy paid off as digital subs revenue rose 33% in the judging period — record growth that allowed us to go fully digital and drop print after 55 years this autumn.

I took on an additional role as editorial director of PodPod, an audio-first brand about the craft and business of podcasting, which we launched in October 2022. It has been fantastic to create a new brand, with a weekly podcast and daily news website, and attract big-name guests such as My Dad Wrote A Porno with our “cover star” approach.

It is an honour to be nominated for this award. Everything has been achieved through teamwork and special credit goes to Maisie McCabe, editor of Campaign, and Adam Shepherd, editor of PodPod.

Looking ahead, we must do more to build an inclusive industry, which is why Campaign is partnering with Media For All on new diversity awards. I am excited about the future of magazine media because I see so many opportunities for story-telling and growth in a digital world.

John L. Walters

Eye

Although I’ve been editing a magazine for almost a quarter of a century, I still feel as if I’m new to the job, trying to get my head around it all. There are always so many new things to learn, and I came late to journalism, so I’m still catching up with my peers, whose origin stories go back generations.

I spent the first part of my adult life as a musician, arranger and record producer. A decade went by before I re-invented myself, helped by my journalist wife Clare, and many generous editors and designers.

Along the way I launched a CD journal called Unknown Public (with Laurence Aston) and I wrote music columns for the Independent and the Guardian and subbed extensively on newspapers and magazines. I wrestled with early computers (in music, publishing and design) and websites and social media without losing my love for print. After several years editing Eye, when it was part of some bigger media groups I got the opportunity (in 2008) to do a management buy-out from Haymarket, along with art director Simon Esterson. So Eye has been owned by us – the people who make it – for the past fifteen years, and that’s been a great time to be an indie magazine.

Eye magazine depends upon a tiny team, a substantial network of contributors, loyal advertisers, distributors, magazine shops and committed subscribers and readers. Somehow, they all seem to understand what we’re doing. Eye serves and observes and responds to the design community, which is where we feel most at home. That’s why editing Eye magazine is a great job. The subject matter – including graphic design, photography, illustration, typography and visual culture – are constantly evolving subjects, and the process of putting Eye together is a privilege and a delight.