I reported recently that Garden Answers was looking for an editor. I didn't really think a lot more of this until I checked it out recently and found that Garden Answers were replacing their editor Justine Thompson after less than a year. Justine only took up the position of Editor in mid October 2006 and less that ten months later seems to have vacated the role.
Justine has been with Emap, Garden Answers parent company, for ten years having previously worked on Your Horse, another Emap publication.
So what has gone wrong? Justine was quoted as saying “GARDEN ANSWERS is the only title written by real gardeners for real gardeners. Every member of the team has a passion for plants and growing things. With our help our readers will achieve their dream gardens – but we definitely don’t deal in unrealistic concepts, or celebrity makeovers. I’m especially excited about our new team, including garden writer, author and lecturer Geoff Stebbings, who joins GARDEN ANSWERS as Associate Editor, and Kate Ferrari, our new Production Editor. ”
Publisher, Ed Kenyon was quoted as saying "The gardening market is going through a tough period but we now have the right teams in place to play to our strengths.” and concludes excitedly "The GARDEN ANSWERS team has had a massive boost with the appointment of Justine as Editor, and she now has a fantastic opportunity to make the magazine even more relevant to today's gardening enthusiast.”
So why has Justine left after such a short amount of time? It clearly adds to Emap's woes and heightens my suspicions that Garden Answers has lost a great deal of market share.
The quote by Ed Kenyon betrayed the publishers private fears of bad times for the industry and it would appear Justine was not able perk up the magazine and sites fortunes.
The advert now seems to have been filled but there are no clues on the 'meet the team' page as to who the job has gone to.
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