Editor Krissi Murison leaves NME

Murison departs after raising the quality (if not the sales) of the rapidly approaching-beleaguered music weekly.

Krissi Murison has left the editorship of the NME. She’ll take up the role of Sunday Times features editor later this year.

The long-running paper’s first female editor, Murison took over in September 2009, increasing the word count (and, in our opinion, the word quality). Tentatively, the magazine’s focus was moved from the gossip about boys-in-bands-with-bad-haircuts direction of previous editor Conor McNicholas towards a more considered and adventurous commissioning process and a willingness to embrace new music often overshadowed by the obligation to stick Noel Gallagher on the cover every three weeks. However, she failed to stem the falling numbers, with weekly sales down from 40,000 in 2009 to 27,000 in the last count. Murison’s replacement is yet to be announced.

It’s the second high-profile departure from the title in the last month, with assistant reviews editor, and the paper’s strongest voice, Laura Snapes leaving for associate editor at Pitchfork in March.

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