Magazine News

From cobnuts and the history of the cucumber to rampant penises isn’t really such a leap, when you think about it, but then most of us aren’t thinking much about leaps in content topics when it comes to The Lady.  It’s a lot more fun just to watch and listen to coverage of the magazine’s ‘insiders’ as they beat each other soundly with verbal truncheons.

The Lady is Britain’s oldest women’s weekly, founded by Thomas Gibson Bowles in 1885.  Julia Budworth is his granddaughter and currently co-owner of the magazine, seventy-some years old and (you should pardon the expression) spitting tacks.  But she does it so grandly and with such complete lack of apology that one can do nothing but admire her spirit.

The issue in question is, in two words, Rachel Johnson.  Ms. Johnson, sister of London mayor Boris and with social connections in high places, was one of 21 women shortlisted for the position of editor at The Lady when it became apparent to everyone involved that the magazine was losing its appeal.  Circulation was down from a high of 80,000 in its heyday to about a quarter of that, and Rachel Johnson got the job of putting The Lady back in the running.

Rachel’s ideas about how that should be done brought Julia to a rapid boil.  Instead of how-to articles on knitting or preparing fresh grouse for the dining table, Rachel has offered a how-to on getting the nanny into bed, and a graphic account of her uncle’s gall-bladder surgery, amongst other un-Lady-like topics.  The Lady’s cover has also featured some less-than-conservative figures such as Tracy Emin, (along with her views on masturbation), but that’s not really the problem, according to Julia.

That highly ruffled dignitary has told interviewers in no uncertain terms that Rachel Johnson is the wrong person for the job, always was the wrong person, and clearly is no lady.  Just a few of the descriptive terms that apply are ‘penis-obsessed’, ‘vain and snobbish’, ‘social climber’ and ‘intolerably rude’.  The last may be what clinches Julia’s professed disappointment and disgust with her editor, but then came the publication of Rachel’s A Diary of the Lady.

Rachel was an author and journalist prior to landing the position as editor at The Lady; she had no editorial experience at all.  Her book is all about her first year on the job, and it is literally a blow-by-blow description of one episode after another, complete with serious name-dropping, making it quite a fun read if you’re interested in the scenes behind the scenes in the life of an elderly and struggling magazine.  The author certainly pulls no punches, and just like Julia, she doesn’t apologize either.

Now it has been announced that Rachel is stepping down (or up, depending on your point of view) to a different position on the magazine, as editor-in-chief, while Matt Warren, previously of the Daily Mail, takes over as editor.  Mr. Warren will be the third male to edit the magazine in its long history; his tenure might turn out to be very interesting also.

Ms. Johnson says the move was her decision; she wants to concentrate on writing books about her career and (incidentally perhaps?) “repositioning the brand”.  Presumably that means she’ll continue trying to reach an audience younger than the previous average of 70-something, and probably continue to stir up the controversy that has made headlines for a publication that used to be known as the best source for ads if one were looking for a good nanny.