People is looking to its down under cousin for its latest addition: former WHO editor Jane Nicholls, who joins Larry Hackett's harem as editor-at-large in … January. His full note to the staff after the jump — and is it just us, or did he leave out the part about Nicholls working for FPC, which publishes competitor Conde Nast's brands abroad?
I am pleased to announce that Jane Nicholls, most recently the editor of our
sister magazine WHO in Australia, will be joining People as an
editor-at-large in January.Not only is Jane a seasoned writer and editor steeped in the Time Inc.
culture, her experience in the hand-to-hand combat that is the Australian
magazine newsstand will be invaluable to us in our own increasingly
competitive market. While I would love to have her join us sooner, she has
agreed to remain on at WHO through the fall to assist its new owners in
finding her successor and ensuring a smooth transition.A bit about this woman from Oz: Jane was WHO's first local hire, reporting
for work on Jan 2, 1992, with a start-up team that included Peter Castro,
Sarah Rozen and Mimi Park (that would be, respectively, Leah's sister and
Jeannie's sister, for those of you still doing undergraduate People
history). Beginning as a staff writer, Jane became senior editor (news) in
1993, deputy editor in 1996 and, in 2002, editor. She also spent three
months in 1995 as a PEOPLE writer in New York. She has her grandmother to
thank for the phrase that launched one of WHO's most successful franchises,
"Half Their Size".Jane's pre-WHO career included stints at Australian Home Journal, Modern
Fishing (my favorite), Modern Boating, Electronics Today International and
Overlander, as well as a lengthy fashion magazine phase that still puzzles
her and those who know her. She spent a year as deputy editor of Good
Weekend, the magazine insert in The Sydney Morning Herald, before WHO
called.Jane and her partner Bernard Lagan, an author and journalist who is the
Australian correspondent for The Times (London), have two daughters, Grace,
5, and Rosie, 3.
Editorial Director
For the record, there are two women called Jane Nicholls working in the media in Australia, and it does create some confusion. The other Jane Nicholls is an advertising exec who works for FPC (now owned by News). I have only ever worked in editorial roles, but in fact some of those long ago titles were published by FPC (eg Modern Fishing, where I worked circa 1984!). So Larry didn't leave anything out. See you in January! — Jane Nicholls (editor of WHO until the end of September)