Mark Frith Finally, Truthfully, Officially Is Time Out Editor

M@
By M@ Last edited 176 months ago
Mark Frith Finally, Truthfully, Officially Is Time Out Editor

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"First thing we do, fix the bloody central heating so I don't have to wear this ridiculous coat."

Seems we jumped the gun a bit when we reported the appointment of Mark Frith to the permanent role of Editor of Time Out London. We took our lead from reports in the established media, which turned out to be false. But today, the esteemed organ of all things London officially declared Frith their Liege Lord.

Frith's trial period in the hotseat began in April after the departure of Gordon Thomson. Since then, he's introduced a number of changes to the much-loved mag. As expected, given his background at Heat magazine, the weekly has adopted a more celeb-focused attitude centered around exclusive interviews (including BrĂ¼no, two weeks in a row). A series of sleb-led covers reached its nadir culmination with close-ups of the boys from Take That plastered in clown makeup. Running multiple designs for one issue has purportedly reaped dividends, with increased circulation from readers wanting to burn collect them all. As a loyal subscriber, we had no choice in the design and ended up with Howard. We'd rather not take that.

Other Frithian innovations include a regular Visitors Guide in news stand copies (again, hard luck subscribers), and branching out into real-world events with a Time Out music festival at Westfield. Slowly but surely, the web site seems to be improving. This remains, in our view, the area in biggest need of a revamp. (But we would say that, wouldn't we?)

Last Updated 24 July 2009