The position will oversee the editorial and content of the group’s UK activities. Tim’s focus will be to strategically move the company into the next phase of delivering content, adapting Time Out to the new ways that audiences want to use it. This will include managing Time Out’s expanding digital presence covering online, mobile and tablet apps and social media, as well as Time Out London magazine and the Time Out guide book series.
Tim Arthur (pictured) said “I’m incredibly pleased to have been offered this opportunity. I have always loved Time Out; it’s already been a huge part of my career. Time Out has exciting plans for cross-platform expansion in innovative digital ways, which will make us locally relevant over a much wider UK area to far more people than we have ever reached before. On a global scale, I envisage a time where we reach over 50 million people a month. To be able to take on this newly created role, at a time when Time Out is on the verge of such a fantastic journey, is something I am very much looking forward to.”
Chairman and Founder Tony Elliott said: “We are delighted to have appointed Tim Arthur to this position, and we are very much looking forward to seeing him lead the editorial and content direction of Time Out UK”.
Tim Arthur took on the role of Acting Editor of Time Out in July 2011, after taking the position of UK Content Director at the beginning of 2011. He has been full time with the company since he took the role of Comedy Editor in 2007, during which time he also established the award-winning events company and brand extension, Time Out Live. He has worked with the company since 1991 in a freelance capacity, writing and editing for most sections within the magazine including TV, Theatre, Music and Books.
Tim has written and directed over 20 plays including ‘Dark Tales’ which had a West End run at the Arts Theatre and he had a record contract with Arista as the lead singer of Indie pop band ‘The Amazing Mr E’. He presented the ‘DJ Cat Show’ on Sky TV, going on to write and produce young person’s quiz show ‘Shoot’. He has also been Artistic Director of Trinity Theatre in Tunbridge Wells, MD of Cardboard Citizens Theatre Company and Artistic Director of the Derby Playhouse Community Theatre. He is the author of two books, Shadow in Tiger Country (2000, Harper Collins) and his latest novel The Blind Dog Gospels (2011, Whirling Chair).
During his time as Time Out’s Comedy Editor, Tim was Chair of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards and he secured the first interview with Russell Brand after the controversy over Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross’s prank telephone calls row. He also ensured that Time Out was the first major magazine to put Michael McIntyre on the front cover.
