Nick Logan

Nick Logan (born 3 January 1947 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire) is an English journalist, editor and publisher.

Logan is best known for having founded '' The Face'', the magazine which forged a new "lifestyle" sector in British publishing in the 1980s and 1990s.

He was editor of the '' New Musical Express'' during its 1970s heyday and created a slew of other titles alongside ''The Face'': pop fortnightly '' Smash Hits'', men's magazines ''Arena'', '' Arena Homme +'' and ''Deluxe'' and women's publication ''Frank''.

Early life

One of four children born to John and Doris Logan, Nick Logan was brought up in east London neighbourhoods Leytonstone and Wanstead, and attended Leyton County High School for Boys. He married Julie Hillier (1947-2016) in October 1967, and has three children.

Journalism

Logan started his career in 1963 as a reporter at the ''West Essex Gazette & Walthamstow Guardian'' series of local papers in east London, where he was given responsibility for the pop pages. "I might have interviewed the Small Faces, who lived locally, or the drummer of the Nashville Teens, but it was all minor stuff", Logan said later.

''New Musical Express''

In 1967 Logan joined IPC's ''NME'' as one of five staff writers. The weekly was still reliant on the major stars of the earlier part of the decade such as the Beatles, and, as rock music supplanted pop and album sales overtook those of singles, ''NME'' lost ground to its rival '' Melody Maker'', also published by IPC.

In 1972 IPC's management promoted Logan's colleague Alan Smith to editor and Logan as assistant editor with the brief of overhauling the content and design of the publication. Together they assembled a new editorial team drawn from the ranks of the underground and independently published press, including Charles Shaar Murray from '' Oz'' and Nick Kent and Pennie Smith from '' Frendz''.

Logan assumed the editorship from Smith in 1973 at the age of 26, becoming the youngest national newspaper editor in the UK. His recruitment of the cream of young British writing talent, including Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons, resulted in the title becoming the pre-eminent music weekly of the period, with sales topping 180,000 copies a week.

''Smash Hits''

In 1978 Logan left the ''NME'', determined to never again work in a corporate environment. He pitched several magazine ideas to the printing company East Midlands Allied Press, which was developing its magazine division Emap.

Among these was the proposal for a colourful teenage pop monthly which was test-marketed in the north-east of England in the autumn of 1978 as '' Smash Hits''. "My interest was in featuring excellent photography with song lyrics as ballast and bringing good acts like the Jam to a young audience," Logan said later.

Encouraged by the test-marketing exercise Emap put the first issue into national circulation; over the next couple of months sales increased to above 100,000 and the publisher reached agreement with Logan to switch to fortnightly publication.

''Smash Hits'' circulation rapidly rose to 166,000 copies, just 35,000 fewer than the ''NME'' and 10,000 more than ''Melody Maker'', but by the autumn of 1979 Logan was ready to move on. Journalist Ian Cranna became editor and Logan, in his role as editorial director, proposed a new magazine – "a well-produced, well-designed and well-written monthly with music at its core but with expanding coverage of the subjects that informed it, from fashion and film to nightclubbing and social issues". When Emap's directors passed on the proposal, Logan and his wife decided to go it alone and invest £3,500 savings into the new title, which he named '' The Face''.

''The Face''

Initially working out of the ''Smash Hits'' offices in Carnaby Street, central London, and using the off-the-shelf corporate entity Wagadon, which he had formed for his business relationship with Emap, Logan published the first issue of ''The Face'' on 1 May 1980. Featuring a logo designed by Steve Bush, with whom Logan had worked on ''Smash Hits'', and a portrait by photographer Chalkie Davies of Jerry Dammers of the Specials on the front cover, this issue sold 56,000 copies. Sales levelled over the next six months, but a fillip was provided by alliance with what would become London's New Romantic scene via articles written by young journalist Robert Elms with photographs by Derek Ridgers, Virginia Turbett and others.

The publication of lookalike rivals such as ''New Sounds, New Styles'' and ''Blitz'', and the launch of '' i-D'' magazine, confirmed Logan had established a new publishing sector.

He moved into the first of a series of offices of his own in central London. Subsequently, Logan recruited young designer Neville Brody as art director in 1981, placing the magazine ahead of the pack visually. Brody drew on such early 20th century art and design movements as Constructivism to create a stark new visual language which would define certain visual aspects of 1980s Britain.

The style pages of ''The Face'' meanwhile set the pace for the wider fashion world, particularly those produced by the Buffalo collective, led by stylist Ray Petri and including photographer Jamie Morgan.

In the 1980s Logan's innovations at ''The Face'' included the November 1983 "New Life in Europe" issue, a co-production with nine continental European magazines including France's '' Actuel'', and the 100th edition of September 1988 which incorporated a tri-fold on the front which featured the covers of every magazine published thus far.

In 1990, shortly before being awarded the inaugural Marcus Morris Award for magazine innovation, Logan was diagnosed with cancer of the jaw and forced to take a nine-month sabbatical from work. On recovery he became editorial director at Wagadon, with Sheryl Garratt as editor of ''The Face'' and Dylan Jones editing ''Arena''.

In this period art director Phil Bicker, who had succeeded Neville Brody and Robin Derrick, actively pursued working relationships with young experimental photographers, including Corinne Day, Stephane Sednaoui, Nigel Shafran and David Sims, as well as stylists such as Melanie Ward

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