View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. News
July 20, 2009

Why ‘shabby’ Rachel Johnson is ‘just right’ for The Lady

By Dominic wireposts

Rachel Johnson has told the Mail on Sunday how she bagged her job as the new editor of The Lady – one of the UK’s oldest women’s magazines.

She showed the publisher around her Notting Hill home and he said: “This is shabby. Just right. It’s not all modern or vulgar. You’ll fit right in with our magazine.”

The author and columnist has a tough job ahead of her. The Lady has a circulation of just 31,000 and with an average reader age of 70, the MoS notes that this is a ‘dying market’.

Johnson says she was approached by publisher Ben Budworth about taking the job on and was initially reluctant to do so, saying: ‘I wasn’t really looking for full-time employment’.

Novelist Daisy Waugh, former Erotic Review editor Rowan Pelling and author Molly Watson were the other candidates on the final shortlist apparently.

Revealing her plans for the title, Johnson says: “It still looks to me a little too much like a Bupa catalogue. We must get away from using generic cover pictures of women with neat grey bobs and white linen trousers. I’m going to put real women on the front…like Michelle Obama or Mariella Frostrup.”

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

Topics in this article : , ,

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

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network