Q magazine hires fourth editor within 12 months.

Emap has appointed its fourth Q editor in a year after parting company with John McKie -- following four months at the magazine's helm -- and installing the monthly's former features editor Danny Eccleston.

The surprise move comes as Europe's largest-selling music monthly is planning a redesign scheduled for the magazine's 15th anniversary in October. It also follows a series of short tenures in the editor's chair: Andy Pemberton suddenly left last year, replaced by Andrew Harrison, who acted as editor prior to McKie's hiring and his own promotion to become editorial director of Mixmag.

Q editorial director Paul Trynka says McKie, who joined the title from Smash Hits, "had a lot of good ideas and performed a valuable role in the redesign". He denied McKie's departure was related to a clash of cultures, given McKie's background on Smash Hits, but declined to elaborate. "It's not like John came in and wanted to put a lot of pop acts on the cover," he adds.

At the same time Emap Performance has folded its latest magazine launch Kingsize after only four issues. Staff were told of the decision to scrap the nu-metal, hip-hop and lifestyle title last Wednesday morning after the magazine failed to build on first issue sales of around 30,000. The final issue is the August edition, which is now on sale.

Kingsize was launched in March on a trial basis, but the closure announcement still ...