Q has a new editor - Danny Eccleston is stepping down and Kerrang! editor Paul Rees is to replace him. Word is Eccleston is to work on a new project for EMAP's music division EMAP Performance. "Danny has done a fantastic job on Q," Dave Henderson, managing director of rock at Emap Performance told the Media Guardian. "He turned the title around and busted our forecasted sales. We're very excited about his new idea and have decided to give him the creative muscle to make it happen."
EMAP bosses are denying the changes are a reaction to a recent 'crisis' over readership figures for the music magazine. It transpired that what the publisher had recorded as paid-for bulk sales (when a publisher sells a corporate customer a bulk set of magazines at a discount rate) were actually promotional giveaways (when the publisher gives away copies of the magazine as a promotional exercise). Giveaway issues aren't counted in official readership figures which meant the magazines audited readership fell by 18,500 "These appointments are not a reaction to the recent ABC inquiry and are in no way related as they were agreed before the ABC issues came to light," an EMAP spokeswoman said.
How Rees will further the development of Q remains to be seen. His time at Kerrang, helped by the resurgence of nu metal, has been hugely successful both in terms of sales figures, and in industry recognition - the magazine has won PPA magazine of the year and Media Week's media brand of the year in the last year. No word on a new editor for Kerrang just yet.