Hannah Dobson becomes Singletrack Editorial Manager as Chipps heads for mountains
Hannah Dobson has stepped into the managing editor’s role at Singletrack, while long-term editor Chipps Chippendale heads for the mountains of Europe in an ‘editor at large’ role.
Regardless of some ribbing in the office that he’s ‘retiring’, Editor and co-founder of the title Chipps is planning to take a step back from the day to day life at the Singletrack World Magazine office in order to concentrate on the print magazine more.
At the end of August, Chipps will begin concentrating more on the commissioning, writing and editing of Singletrack World’s magazine and doing less answering phones, writing online stories and emptying the bins, he told CI.N.
To most people, this won’t change anything, as Singletrack Towers has mostly been virtual for the last 18 months, however for Chipps, it means fewer meetings and more time to ride bikes and write features.
It’s been a busy 2021 already for this 30-year mountain bike industry veteran. First came Singletrack Magazine’s 20th birthday, then he moved house “from a big old, draughty barn, to a tiny two-bed terrace” and in mid-August he’s getting married to long time partner (transport planner and cargo-bike champion) Beate Kubitz.
After that, though, things get even more complicated as they plan on making the most of Beate’s German/EU citizenship and to move to Europe by the beginning of 2022. “Somewhere warmer, drier and more mountainous than Todmorden, if that’s even possible. We have our eyes on the Pyrenees,” Chipps explains.
Thanks to the Covid-inspired and successful, if unplanned, move of Singletrack to virtual working, there shouldn’t be any change in the frequency or quality of Singletrack World magazine, given that the magazine already has a strong in-house team that includes Hannah Dobson (who moves to a Editorial Manager role), Tech Ed Andi Sykes, Art Director Amanda Wishart, writer Lauren Jenkins and Chipps’ business partner Mark Alker, among others. The in-house team will continue to improve on Singletrack’s massive online numbers, while Chipps does more writing, shooting and editing.
So, expect exactly the same from Chipps in 2022, and probably more. Just from somewhere else.
