John Brown reappointed as publisher of education titles

John Brown and fellow publisher Redwood have also retained Royal Mail's four-year publishing contract covering staff and customer titles across the Royal Mail and Post Office, following a protracted review process. Redwood is believed to have won the lion's share of the contract.

John Brown will continue to produce the flagship magazine, Teachers, for the Department for Children, Schools and Families (formerly the Department for Education and Skills), which is produced in primary and secondary school versions. The bi-monthly magazine has a circulation of 335,000 and is available free to teachers, head teachers and classroom assistants.

The publisher will also be responsible for the tri-annual Governors newsletter, which has a circulation of 350,000; fortnightly online title Schools in Focus; and monthly head teacher newsletter Spectrum, which has a circulation of 30,000.

Neither John Brown nor the DCSF were available for comment at the time of going to press.

Earlier this year (20 March), Media Week reported that Royal Mail had shortlisted John Brown, Redwood and Haymarket Network, the contract publishing arm of Haymarket, owner of Media Week.

The Royal Mail contract covers internal titles including Courier, a monthly circulated to 280,000 general Royal Mail staff, and Open, which is aimed at managers in the group. Other titles are Contract and Sort It!, both of which are aimed at Royal Mail's business customers.

Following the review, John Brown will still be responsible for publishing Posted magazine, previously known as Sorted, which it took over from Conde Nast at the end of last year.

A Royal Mail spokesman confirmed Redwood and John Brown's appointments and said the review was about "creating a group-wide publishing contract".

He confirmed that John Brown was responsible for Posted, but added that the contract would enable Royal Mail to shift titles between the two publishers.

Last November, John Brown picked up five awards at the Association of Publishing Agencies annual awards, including one for Sian Phillips, editor of Teachers.

This article was first published on Media Week