It’s all change amongst the editorial leadership at Farmers Weekly as Guild member Jane King, editor for the past 10 years, has decided to leave Reed Business Publishing and explore new opportunities in agriculture.
Coincidentally, Isobel Davies is leaving her post as Farmers Weekly content editor after 16 years on the magazine to work freelance.
Jane, who became the first woman editor in the 80-year history of Farmers Weekly when she was appointed in January 2005, led a complete revitalisation and repositioning of the magazine. She was later appointed editorial director of Farmers Weekly Group to assume overall responsibility for other farming titles and the FWi.co.uk website.
In her Reed Elsevier profile, Jane says: “Even in wellies, I don’t conform to the stereotype of the editor of a farming magazine. That’s because I’m not a professional farmer – but I am a professional editor, and RBI has given me the chance to gain enormous and varied experience over 30 years.
“I’ve worked on titles that serve markets from social workers and doctors to HR professionals and retailers. A lot of my work has involved change management – revisiting team structures, launching new products and revising editorial content.”
Of her time in the farming industry, Jane says she has enjoyed it enormously and is keen to pursue another leadership role: “These are really exciting times for UK agriculture. Although the short term is extremely challenging, long term prospects are very good. I would like to make a difference in some way within the industry as I think there is still so much to do in terms of all sectors achieving their full potential at home and globally.”
Taking over the helm of the national title is Karl Schneider, who will be editorial director for Farmers Weekly Group and editor of Farmers Weekly from the beginning of January 2015.
Karl has worked for RBI for 26 years, holding senior roles on some of the company’s biggest titles, including editorial director of Computer Weekly and executive editor of New Scientist.
As editorial director since 2006, Karl has been responsible for developing RBI’s editorial strategy, team structures, technology platforms and content propositions in print and online.
