MacGregor swaps Headline for Head of Zeus in publishing director role

Iain MacGregor is leaving his role as publisher at Headline to become publishing director at Head of Zeus’ non-fiction imprint Apollo. 

Starting on 14th November, MacGregor will join Apollo editor-in-chief Neil Belton and publisher Richard Milbank, reporting to c.e.o. Nicolas Cheetham.

Currently a publisher of non-fiction at Headline, MacGregor has worked with authors such as Simon Schama, William Taubman, Michael Wood, James Barr and Alex von Tunzelmann. Von Tunzelmann’s most recent book, Fallen Idols, was shortlisted for this year’s Wolfson History Prize. 

"Head of Zeus have been one of the stronger independent publishers of history and serious narrative for several years and their partnership with Bloomsbury now gives them that added impetus and support to take their programme to another level," he said. "I am excited to be given the opportunity to play a key part in this new era, work with Apollo’s current stable of talented authors and to bring in new writers who will add to this success."

At the end of 2020, HoZ reorganised into six audience-specific imprints, with Apollo non-fiction specialising in history, heritage, science and nature. Highlights of last year included Fintan O’Toole’s We Don’t Know Ourselves, Dan Jones’ Powers & Thrones and Frannie Moyle’s The King’s Painter.

Cheetham commented: “History is one of HoZ’s foundation stones — the first book we published was Robert K Massie’s Catherine the Great — and Apollo is the keystone in our future growth plans as we invest in storytelling, scholarship and industry-leading production values. Iain is a proven leader of top-line editorial teams, an energetic and inventive publisher across multiple formats, and a critically acclaimed historian himself. I can’t imagine a more suitable candidate to lead Apollo’s non-fiction programme."