NEW KINGDOM: In naming Suzanne Sykes as its new creative director, Marie Claire has in a sense gone back to its roots — if not all the way to France, then to the United Kingdom, where Sykes worked on the launch of the magazine's British version under editor in chief Glenda Bailey, subsequently editor of its U.S. edition and now editing Harper's Bazaar. Sykes most recently has been art director of Britain's successful glossy weekly Grazia, which she also helped launch. On that magazine, The Observer of London recently remarked: "Every now and again a magazine comes along that captures the moment. Marie Claire did it in the Eighties, the lads' mag Loaded did it in the Nineties. Grazia's news-'n'-shoes format is doing it right now."

Praised for her Grazia designs in Britain, Sykes is moving to New York to join a magazine whose redesign has been critically acclaimed (former creative director Paul Martinez, now at Men's Journal, won a Society of Publication Designers gold medal for best redesign), but one that faces declines at the newsstand. — Irin Carmon

THIRD TRY'S A CHARM?: LTB Media's Culture & Travel finally has its third editor since its September launch: Food & Wine contributing editor Kate Sekules. Previously the magazine's travel editor, she is the author of a memoir, "The Boxer's Heart." Dana Cowin, editor in chief of Food & Wine, praised Sekules for possessing "the world's best instincts," and called her "a dazzling writer."

She has an uphill journey ahead of her. The magazine and its parent company have been beset by turnover, starting with the October departure of editorial director James Truman and continuing with Culture & Travel's launch editor, Michael Boodro, in late January and his successor, Peter Terzian, in early March. Art + Auction editor Anthony Freund reportedly had been leading the editor search, with his executive editor, Ted Loos, said to be taking on some Culture & Travel editing duties. Sekules declined comment, while Freund and a spokeswoman for LTB Media did not return calls by press time. — I.C.