Face to Face

An editorial pow-wow

Is he the most handsome man in British media? Does he helm the Original Style Bible? Yes and yes. Here’s a snippet from a summit with Morecambe’s finest, in which our editor interviews the editor of The Face, Matthew Whitehouse.

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CB: The Face, along with Private Eye, is one of the only British publications that has a global reputation. When you got the job as editor, did you feel under pressure?

MW: If you spent all day worrying about being the editor, then you’d never get any work done. 

It’s actually quite daunting to sit down with a blank flatplan, and think you can fill it with anything in the world. When it came to my first issue as editor, in 2020, we ended up shooting everything in England and it gave us such a tight focus, such a sense of perspective, of humour, of location, that it set the tone for us.

A friend of mine, John Holt, who edits LAW magazine, texted me saying, ‘You’ve got the keys to a rocket ship.’ I think about that a lot, and how great it is to scratch that creative itch. 

The Face and The Fence are quite similar in that we have a well-known visual language. What are your top tips for dealing with art directors?

I use that old jazz maxim: ‘It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t.’ And if you work with a good art director, as we do, you don’t really have to play very many notes at all. 

Nightlife is such an integral part of The Face’s original identity. How do you feel about the UK’s nightlife right now, and how has that informed your current editorial direction?

I want the magazine to genuinely and sincerely reflect what young people care about. And so, if young people care about club closures, then we care about club closures. What I will say is that if 10 years of working at trendy magazines has taught me anything, it’s that something new always comes along. That’s what keeps me excited about this job. So while we absolutely need to protect the nightlife scene, I do trust in the next generation to do something new and exciting, too. Hopefully we’ll be there to document and be a part of that.

Apart from The Fence, what is on your reading list? We’re talking about books, magazines, newsletters. What’s on your radar?

I read a lot less than I used to. It’s a bit of a busman’s holiday. Every six months or so I try to read through a whole bunch of new magazines. I like The Fence, of course. But I don’t read magazines regularly. The first thing I remember reading was The Beano. I still think about that a lot.

Who under the age of 40 – and it can be anyone from anywhere – is a genius?

I love that The Face pushes me towards newness. I try to listen to things as I did when I was 17,18, when it was all so formative. I always want to be there where the energy is. I guess you only really understand genius with the advantage of hindsight but I still probably call something or someone genius most days. It’s my job to be excited. 

Do you think there needs to be more northern representation in British media?

Growing up, I didn’t know working at a magazine was even an option. It just seemed like something that happened a very long way from where I was. The north is full of great stories, and full of great people. I feel so northern, and so proud to be northern – I’ll always push northern representation as much as I can.