... as `Wisden' takes new guard

Wisden, the most venerable name in cricket, is moving in with the publisher of the scatological humour magazine Viz, Fortean Times, the almanac of the weird, and the Spice Girls Magazine, writes Paul McCann.

John Brown Publishing, which made its money from appealing to male humour long before Loaded appeared, has signed a deal to handle the printing, marketing and sales for Wisden Cricket Monthly, which is owned by John Paul Getty II.

It means that Wisden will move from a shabby ground-floor flat in Guildford to a fashionable converted warehouse next to the River Cafe in west London.

The move comes at the end of a year-long effort to revamp the ailing magazine which has been limping along with sales of 20,000 copies a month. It is now even experimenting with such modern ideas as giveaway posters of the England team, a fantasy cricket game and a Wisden web site on the Internet.