Nick Feik promoted to editor of The Monthly, John van Tiggelen to become staff writer
Nick Feik
Schwartz Media has appointed Nick Feik to be editor of The Monthly with current editor John van Tiggelen stepping down to take up a staff writing role on the magazine, Mumbrella can reveal.
Van Tiggelen made the decision earlier this week and Schwartz Media has moved promote from within by elevating Feik, who was previously online editor of the magazine, to the top job for the publication which covers politics, society and the arts.
“I’ve worked for Schwartz Media for five or six years now and The Monthly is something I’ve always admired,” Feik told Mumbrella.
“When the opportunity came up I jumped at it,” he said, “I’m also stoked to have John on board because I have always admired his writing and he is looking forward to returning to writing, plus I get something no editor of The Monthly has had before which is a staff writer.”
The Monthly, which was started nine years ago, is owed by property developer Morry Schwartz’s Schwartz Media, which also publishes new weekly newspaper The Saturday Paper and the periodical The Quarterly Essay. It has a stable circulation of 31,000 according to the last ABC figures.
Feik has been with Schwartz Media for the last five years and in addition to running The Monthly’s website was responsible for the Shortlist Daily and PoliticOz e-newsletters, SlowTV/Monthly video and the Monthly blog. Prior to joining Schwartz Feik was a freelance writer for The Age, The Drum, the Monthly online and the Economist Intelligence Unit. He has also worked as a curator/programmer for the Melbourne International Film Festival.
He said he would seek to follow the lead of his predecessors such as von Tiggelen and Ben Naparstek in ensuring The Monthly had high impact long form journalistic pieces.
“I have great admiration for what all the editors have done with the magazine so far,” he said. “What I will be concentrating on is the sort of things that set The Monthly apart from all the other magazines and news organisations in the country and that is high impact journalistic essays.
“The big colour pieces that The Monthly is synonymous with — Flanagan on the pulp mill, Chloe Hooper’s original piece about Palm Island, The Rudd essay etc. These sort of pieces are the things I would really like to pursue more of.”
Van Tiggelen, who is one of Australia’s top long form writers and wrote for Good Weekend for more than a decade before taking The Monthly editorship and said he had made the decision to step down as editor for family reasons.
“I’ve been looking forward to this change, partly for family reasons: I’ve been commuting from central Victoria to Collingwood for well over two years now. The magazine will be in very safe hands with Nick, and I’m thankful that Morry has been so gracious as to enable me to continue working for the Monthly for another year at least,” said Van Tiggelen.
The Monthly publisher’s Morry Schwartz said he looked forward to seeing how the magazine developed under its new editor and staff writer.
“It has been a great pleasure to work with John over the past two years,” said Schwartz. “During this time the Monthly has maintained its high quality and prospered. I look forward to working with him as a writer. I’ve been working with Nick for a very long time and I am confident that this next phase will be as successful as everything else he has put his hand to in the past.”
Feik takes over the role of editor from April 2.
Nic Christensen
