Elle's new hands-on editor is scaling the heights of fashion; Sarah Bailey, editor of Elle, will not be making radical changes. (Headliner).(Brief Article)

It was time to take an Easter break from the workaday world of media buying and selling to step into a more glamorous, stylish orbit. The journey wasn't far: Emap Elan's HQ on Shaftesbury Avenue, and all of a sudden Campaign is talking about Paris catwalks rather than global agency consolidation or ITV Digital's plight.

The excuse for this ephemeral experience? Sarah Bailey has just been made the editor of Elle magazine, the title that mixes high and street fashion with celebrity and showbusiness. So what does the woman who caught the celebrity fashion bug after interviewing Christian Slater in a Paris hotel have planned for the magazine?

Bailey is cooking-up changes to Elle for her first fully edited edition in June. She says: "I want to take Elle back to its core values of fashion and style. This will run through the issue and will involve making the features as sexy as the rest of the mag."

She won't be more specific but though the changes will be perceptible, they are unlikely to be radical. The previous Elle editor was Fiona McIntosh, who left late last year to work on new projects for Emap. Under McIntosh the title became more celebrity and show-biz focused and this helped to increase circulation from 180,000 in 1998 to its current 210,000.

Bailey certainly won't be ditching the celebrity focus. Under McIntosh she took on the great-sounding title of editor-at-large, which basically entailed hotfooting it to Paris, New York and Hollywood to woo celebrity agents and fashion houses.

Some big exclusives followed, including a piece on Jennifer Aniston at home with her friends and a front cover with Jay Kay and Denise van Outen in happier days.

This hard work has left its mark on Elle. For instance, Britney Spears adorns the cover of the April edition. But fashion lies at the centre of the magazine. Bailey says: "The women's market is very competitive at the moment but our core readership is very focused. They tend to be style leaders in friendship groups--the ones who know who Marc Jacobs is before anybody else."