April 14, 2011

Joe Barnes leaves Front to edit FHM

FHM has announced the appointment of Front editor Joe Barnes as its new editor.

The Bauer Media-owned men’s magazine kicked off its search for a new editor in January when Colin Kennedy left after just over two years in the role.

Barnes will be tasked with helping reverse the magazine’s heavy decline in sales in recent years. According to the most recent figures available from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, FHM averaged sales of 177,261 a month in the second half of last year – down 23.3 per cent year on year. In 2009 lost its status as the best-selling men’s magazine to Men’s Health.

Barnes, who takes up his new role in June, joined Front as news editor in 2005 and was appointed editor in October 2006, when he helped oversee a major relaunch.

Barnes said: ‘FHM is the ultimate job in men’s publishing. I can’t wait to get going on it and amplify the brand’s ‘funny, sexy, useful’ values on all its many platforms. I aim to make sure that FHM remains a pioneering brand and a magazine utterly in tune with the wants and needs of young, articulate and aspirational men in Britain.”

FHM publishing director Rimi Atwal said: ‘Joe’s clear understanding of modern mainstream men, strategic vision and editorial instinct in a multi media world made him the standout candidate for this key role. He is a young talent who will inject fresh thinking and energy into the market, and has a real passion for FHM.”