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April 15, 2004updated 17 May 2007 11:30am

Real Deals’ new team plans to ‘get under skin’ of business

By Press Gazette

Martin Essex will spend time in Europe to raise the title’s profile abroad

Fortnightly business magazine Real Deals has appointed an editor and team ahead of plans to feature more investigative stories to “get under the skin” of business.

Martin Essex, former economics editor of The Sunday Business, has been named as editor. Ross Butler has joined as deputy and Kimberley Romaine has been hired to edit the “Done Deals” section.

Essex has recently been working as a senior economist at independent consultancy Capital Economics. Prior to that he was at The Sunday Business and Reuters, where he was head of the international bonds unit. He has also worked for Euromoney, The Scotsman and the BBC.

Publishing director Jeremy Knight said: “Real Deals is the market leader in the private equity space across Europe and we really need to take it to the next level now. We need to move away from where we were and get out more.

We need an ambassador for the role of editor and Martin fits the bill.”

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Knight said Essex would spend time in Europe, working to raise the profile of the magazine abroad.

He told Press Gazette: “He will be far more visible than our editor has been in the past. Real Deals needs to start getting under the skin of this industry.

We need to start tackling some of the technical issues and not be shy of being harder-hitting. If something doesn’t stack up, we should go out of our way to interrogate it – without upsetting everybody,” he added.

Knight said the title would also make more use of “off the record” conversations.

It will feature slightly shorter articles “with more punch” and publish more in-depth supplements – the first of which will be dedicated to risk and come out in May.

Knight added that there were plans for spin-offs — thought to include a standalone version of Done Deals – the fruits of which are likely to be seen later this year.

The shake-up follows a mini exodus in January when founding editor Grant Murgatroyd resigned to join media training and contract publisher Bladonmore, deputy editor Shaun Beaney quit to go to the Institute of Chartered Accountants and Shalini Sharma, editor of Done Deals, left the company.

Stuart Rock, editorial director and co founder of Real Deals’ owner Caspian Publishing, had to stand in as acting editor.

By Ruth Addicott

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

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