Inside Story: For one issue only...

TIME OUT

March 2005

Time Out was one of the first magazines to use a guest editor, with the Monty Python issue in 1973, and guest editors over the years have included filmmaker Guy Ritchie, designer Paul Smith and writer Jake Arnott. Novelist Nick Hornby was the second guest editor under Gordon Thomson's editorship of the London listings bible, after Elton John. Hornby was once a sub-editor on Time Out and was in the magazine's building when he received the first proofs of Fever Pitch. Thomson says he seemed genuinely delighted to be back: "He was really into the idea. He didn't want to do it as an absentee landlord, he wanted to be very hands-on. I came in one day and he was writing picture captions. I got the impression that if he hadn't become a writer he would've been very happy as a sub on Time Out."

NME

IPC, January 2005

British rock band Franz Ferdinand guest-edited NME in January 2005, taking on everything from the letters page to approving features and interviewing rock bands. NME editor Conor McNicholas says the band were on an international tour at the time so most of the work was done by fax and e-mail, while the photo shoot took place in a studio in Los Angeles.

"We knew them fairly well already. Virtually everyone on the mag had hung out with them, and the reason I wanted them to do it was because I knew they had quite a lot to say, they are tremendously eloquent; they arrived with a fully formed agenda, which was manna from heaven for me."

ELLE DECORATION

Hachette Filipacchi, December 2006

Designer, retailer and restaurateur Sir Terence Conran takes the reins at Elle Decoration for this month's issue. Editor-in-chief Michelle Ogundehin says Sir Terence did go into the office once, but she mostly chose to meet him on his turf.

"I met him at his country house; it was classic Conran, a creative space with lots of models, a big kitchen, and a good wine cellar. We made the whole back section [of the magazine] about easy entertaining, and it was single-handedly put together by him. His copy filing was exceptional - word-perfect and absolutely on deadline."

CLOSER

Emap, 19-25 August 2006

Wayne Rooney's fiancée Coleen McLoughlin is a columnist for Closer, and for the magazine's 200th issue in August she took the helm as guest editor. Editor Jane Johnson says: "Coleen visited the Closer office to see how the magazine works. She directed our fashion content for the issue - her particular interest - did a special column and checked her page proofs. As a student, Coleen had aspirations to be a journalist - and especially loved writing her ed's letter. She proved she was style queen of the WAGs by wearing a £14 George at Asda dress for our cover - and making it look worth a million dollars."

VOGUE AUSTRALIA

Condé Nast, December 2006

Vogue UK does not go in much for guest editors but its international counterparts do. The alumni of guest editors for French Vogue includes the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and supermodel Kate Moss, while the current issue of Australian Vogue is guest-edited by Kylie Minogue. Kirstie Clements, editor of Vogue Australia, says Minogue has universal appeal in Australia and fits the Vogue demographic perfectly.

"I got in touch with her when it became apparent that she was getting better and past the worst of treatment," Clements says. "We met [in London] and then spent the day shopping. People love her; young, old, gay, straight. It's a lovely time to celebrate her coming out the other end."

GQ

Condé Nast, Giorgio Armani, March 2005

Before Giorgio Armani joined The Independent as guest designer in September this year, he had already honed his editor skills at men's style magazine GQ. Editor Dylan Jones liaised with the fashion designerat several meetings in London and Milan.

"It was quite a convoluted process making sure we got the shootsand the articles right - he's not the sort of person who'd do something like this if he was not completely happy with it."

KERRANG!

Emap, 18 June 2005

Green Day guest-edited Kerrang! last year. The magazine had previously had a fraught experience with Marilyn Manson but the Green Day crowd, although too busy to come into the office in person, were much easier to deal with. Paul Brannigan, editor of Kerrang!, recalls: "They were in the middle of an American tour, so it was a few weeks of sending back and forth e-mails about what the content of the magazine would be. Then one of us went over to join them on the American tour and took pictures for them to approve." But Paul Rees, editor of Q Magazine, and a former editor of Kerrang! says: "Marilyn Manson guest-edited Kerrang! while I was there. The process was so fraught we have not repeated it on Q."

MEDIA WEEK

Haymarket Publishing, 14 September 2004

Former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie resumed control of the editor's chair at trade title Media Week, then owned by Quantum Business Media, in autumn 2004, with features such as "media's biggest bruisers" and turning the careers page into a "Dear Deirdre" style page with pics of a glamour model. Tim Burrowes, editor at the time, recalls Kelvin's day in the office: "There was a real fear of him beforehand and everybody was quite scared of what he'd be like but he was incredibly nice to everyone and he even took us out to lunch and paid for it. He didn't have much of a bark that day and he certainly didn't have a bite."

ELLE

Hachette Filipacchi, October 2006

Fashion icon Donatella Versace guest-edited Elle's 21st birthday issue. That was the second guest editorship under editor-in-chief Lorraine Candy, after Karl Lagerfeld in April this year. Candy on Donatella: "She arrived with four bodyguards, her hairdresser and make-up artist - an entourage of incredibly tall men in black. We had to disable the smoke detectors in my office so she could smoke. She went round to every single department and talked to them. She is a legend!"

THE INDEPENDENT

Independent News & Media, 16 May 2006

While guest editorships are common for newspaper sections, it's rare for a newspaper editor to cede power to an outsider. The Independent made history when U2 frontman Bono edited the paper for a day, an exercise it followed up four months later when fashion designer Giorgio Armani came on board as guest designer. Simon Kelner, editor of The Independent, says Bono took the job very seriously, even eating lunch in the office. "He very quickly slipped into the guise of a journalist. I overheard him on his mobile phone at about 10 o'clock in the morning saying 'well you'd better hurry up - time is money' and I heard him explaining to one of our columnists that 'it's very good but it just needs refocusing' - you'd hear any experienced editor say the same thing. He arrived without any fuss or bother and stayed beyond the time he was due to stay. The staff loved it - he was much nicer to them than I am."

FRENCH VOGUE

Condé Nast, December 1992

Colombe Pringle, then editor-in-chief of French Vogue, secured an audience with the Tibetan spiritual leader in Austria and he invited her to go to Dharamsala, the home of Tibetans in exile in northern India. She was eight months pregnant when she flew to the Himalayan town with her husband, a photographer, the Vogue art director and a journalist. "My husband came with me because I thought if I gave birth there he may as well be there. We were living in the Dalai Lama's mother's house. We spent six days there and had meetings every morning with the Dalai Lama to show him layouts. He was so normal and so open, so modest, so charming. He put his hand on my tummy and said 'is it a boy or a girl?'. I am not a Buddhist but after a few days the whole team started getting calmer and more reflective."

NUTS

IPC, 10-16 September 2004

When glamour model Abi Titmuss was at the height of her fame, she staged a so-called coup at the newly launched lads' weekly Nuts. She arrived at the IPC offices on London's South Bank with her hair and make-up crew, including the legendary "Doc", tied up editor Phil Hilton with gaffer tape, and charmed the Nuts team with her "voluble and friendly" manner.

Hilton recalls: "In reality, it was all carefully planned as we only had so much time. The gag was that she was taking over Nuts and I was tied up. In case you ever wanted to know, gaffer tape can be very painful to remove, especially from the mouth.

"She was very voluble, very friendly, and since she was previously a hard-working nurse, she didn't find a shoot hard-going at all and was delighted to be spending her day tying me up and being paid for it. We do meet a few celebrities but everyone was astounded and amazed by Abi - it's just one of these brilliant stories that you go home and tell everyone about."