John Lloyd has stepped down as editor of the FT Magazine to return to full-time writing.
Lloyd, who has edited the Saturday magazine since its launch in 2003, will stay on as contributing editor of the title, and will also write regularly for the Financial Times newspaper.
He will be succeeded by his deputy, Graham Watts, who joined the FT in 1985 and has been deputy editor of the FT Magazine since its launch in April 2003. Before that he was deputy editor of the world newsdesk.
"I am delighted to appoint Graham to the position of editor of the FT Magazine. His breadth of knowledge and international experience will ensure that the magazine will retain its commitment to high-quality reporting and analysis," said Andrew Gowers, the editor of the FT.
"I am also pleased that John Lloyd, founding editor of the FT Magazine, will take on a full-time writing position, continuing to contribute to the magazine as well as to the paper. We owe a great deal to John: he has fulfilled the demanding brief of establishing a new magazine with distinction and great intellectual energy."
Lloyd, a former editor of the New Statesman, has worked for the FT on and off since 1976. He joined as industrial correspondent, and has done stints as Moscow correspondent, industrial editor and East European editor.
In recent years he has been best known for his views on the media and his book, What the Media Are Doing to Our Politics, sparked a debate on the quality of journalism in the UK when it was published last year.
Lloyd said it was time to move back to writing after two-and-a-half years at the magazine.
He added that his move was not directly linked to the recent appointment of Mike Skapinker, the FT's management editor, as editor of the Saturday edition.
"Mike was the assistant editor of the weekend FT and I get on with him. I felt since he came in my position was not exactly redundant, but it was time for someone else to come in."
Lloyd admitted that the new editor's hands-on remit made it easier for him to leave without causing significant upheaval at the magazine: "The fact that there was a change and that someone else was taking over and would be hands on meant that my leaving would not precipitate any kind of difficulty."
There have been suggestions that Lloyd had resigned after Mr Gowers criticised the FT Magazine in a note to the editor of the Saturday edition.
Today, Lloyd said the FT's editor had made some criticisms of one edition of the magazine, but that his departure had been unrelated.
"Andrew Gowers wrote a note to Mike [Skapinker] criticising one particular issue of the magazine. I felt it was wrong, but it wasn't important. It wasn't a factor in my going, which was at my request," he said.
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