One of the UK’s oldest weekly magazines, The Lady, has parted company with its editor after 18 years in the job.
Arline Usden was only the eighth editor of the magazine since its launch in 1885 as a “journal for gentlewomen”.
The Lady said in a statement that Usden would continue to write opera reviews and beauty and travel features for the magazine in the role of editor-at-large.
Her departure follows a period of upheaval at the family-owned magazine, famous for its classified ads for domestic staff.
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Ben Budworth, the great-grandfather of founder Thomas Gibson Bowles, joined the magazine last November to oversee a full-colour relaunch and redesign.
He hired former Marie Claire associate editor Sarah Kennedy to breathe new life into the title and make it appeal to a younger audience.
Budworth said: “Arline Usden has been an excellent editor of The Lady, producing a fascinating magazine that our readers love.
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“We owe her a great deal, not only for her ideas, professionalism and long and dedicated service, but also for her journalistic expertise in bringing the magazine into the 21st century.”
Usden is a former beauty editor at Woman magazine and editor of Beauty Plus, Successful Sliming and Practical Hair and Beauty. She began her career at the Yorkshire Evening News.
The London Evening Standard’s diary column has named novelist Daisy Waugh and former Erotic Review editor Rowan Pelling as potential candidates for the job.
But Pelling told yesterday’s Pandora diary in the Independent: “I’m gutted to report that nobody has approached me.”
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