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January 8, 2004updated 17 May 2007 11:30am

Deputy editor succeeds Merrill at IPC’s Chat

By Press Gazette

Chat has promoted deputy editor June Smith-Sheppard to editor following the departure of Paul Merrill to launch Zoo Weekly.

Smith-Sheppard joined IPC in 1978 when she worked on teen titles before leaving to raise her family. She later retuned to IPC as commissioning editor across the women’s weeklies before joining Chat as features editor and then associate editor four and a half years ago.

Commenting on her appointment, Smith-Sheppard described the job as the “highlight” of her career so far.

“Some people have described me as the embodiment of Chat. So for the record I would just like to say, I do not possess a Samurai sword and my husband has never got frisky with a frozen chicken. Well, not to my knowledge.”

Chat is IPC’s fastest growing women’s magazine and has shown record growth in recent ABCs, up 25 per cent in the past two years alone. Its latest ABC was 575,585, up 11.7 per cent year-on-year.

Sandy Gale, publishing director with IPC Connect, said: “The success of Chat is testament to the strength of the editorial team, which June has been at the heart of.”

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