Editor Hugh Pearman Categories Architecture Circulation 27,580 (ABC 2015) | Former editors Peter Murray Frequency Monthly Publisher RIBA Enterprises | |
The RIBA Journal is the official publication of the Royal Institute of British Architects, based in London. It has the largest circulation of any architectural magazine in Britain.
The RIBA has issued publications since its foundation in 1834, and the magazine evolved from these. It was established in 1893 as the Journal of proceedings of the Royal Institute of British Architects and was the same year renamed Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects before becoming The RIBA Journal. Until the outbreak of the Second World War it appeared fortnightly, then monthly. From 1986 to 1987 it was rebranded The Architect: The Journal of the RIBA, then reverted to its previous title. It is often known simply as the RIBAJ, and its website is ribaj.com.
It is a monthly publication in print, but updated daily online, where there is much extra material. It is edited by Hugh Pearman since 2006, with Eleanor Young as executive editor, Jan-Carlos Kucharek as senior editor and Isabelle Priest as assistant editor. Previous editors in order back to 1968 are Amanda Baillieu, John Welsh, Richard Wilcock, Jose Manser, David Pearce, Jonathan Glancey, Peter Murray, Monica Pigeon, Roger Barnard and Malcolm MacEwen. In 2016 the RIBAJ instigated the MacEwen Award, subtitled "architecture for the common good", named after its campaigning former editor and his town-planner wife Anni MacEwen.
Between 1993 and 2008 the magazine was published in a joint venture with an outside publisher, the Builder Group, later absorbed into UBM. The RIBA kept a 25% stake. In 2008 the RIBA once again took 100% ownership, contracting out its publication to Atom Publishing. In 2012 the publication moved to RIBA Enterprises, the commercial wing of the Institute. It is not paid for out of RIBA membership subscriptions, operating instead on a self-financing commercial basis through advertising, sponsorship and non-member subscriptions. This arm's length relationship extends to its independent editorial voice, which is by policy not controlled by the Institute. In 2015 the magazine moved into new offices at 76 Portland Place designed by architects Theis + Khan in what had previously been the Institute of Physics building.
In 2012 the magazine launched a magazine supplement "Products in Practice" or PiP, which is published six times a year, edited by Jan-Carlos Kucharek. In 2013 both the RIBAJ and PiP were redesigned by Matt Willey, relaunching in September that year. In 2014 the website, ribaj.com was also redesigned and relaunched. The RIBA Journal now operates a "digital first" policy whereby material is published first online.
In 2009 and 2014 the RIBA Journal won the International Building Press National Journalism 'Magazine of the Year' award in its non-weekly category In March 2016 a critical independent survey of the RIBA by another publication, the Architect's Journal, asked the question "What does the RIBA do best?" Respondents voted for the RIBA Journal by a clear margin, with a high approval rating.