• by Michael Shields , September 1, 2004

TV Guide is reaching across the pond, hoping to reverse declining newsstand sales and a generally lackluster business in recent years.

The venerable title named Ian Birch as its new editor in chief yesterday. Birch comes to TV Guide after an extensive career as an editor and publisher in the United Kingdom.

Over the last four years, Birch worked at Emap, the second-largest consumer magazine company in the UK. There he served as editorial director at two celebrity- and entertainment-focused weekly magazines: heat and its sister title Closer, which together sell more than a million copies on the newsstand every week.

Prior to working at Emap, Birch spent three years as editor of Wenner Media's Us magazine, when it moved from a bi-weekly to a monthly (before its celebrity gossip incarnation of today).

Assumedly, Birch's hire means that TV Guide will attempt to juice up newsstand sales for the company, which have been flagging of late. According to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations data, single copy sales are down 25 percent through June 2004. TV Guide's rate base has been sliding for quite some time, despite an extensive ad campaign and a move toward more light celebrity fare in recent years.

The weekly has been searching for an editor since May of this year, since former Men's Health founder Michael Lafavore left the position after just 15 months.