When Martyn Hocking, who has died of cancer aged 48, became editor of Which? in 2008, he implored a roomful of colleagues to bring him their ideas, however humble: "If each of us comes up with a way to improve what we do by just 1%, before we know it we'll be 100% more effective." He applied the philosophy of many small changes adding up to a huge impact both to his craft as a magazine editor, and to the campaigning research and journalism on which he thrived. His approach enabled Which? to bring about much positive change for UK consumers.
Born in Bristol, Martyn was educated at Bristol cathedral school and Southampton University. He chose journalism as a way not only to pursue his passion for magazines (both his home and his office desk were famously piled high with the titles he loved) but also as a way to try to do good.
He had a sense of how the two could come together during an early career stint at Which?, working on its gardening magazine in the mid-1990s. He left to become editor of Build It magazine in 1998, then in 2003 deputy editor of Golf Monthly (a job reflecting a hobby he loved), and launch editor in 2005 of Location Location Location magazine. But he looked for an opportunity to rejoin Which? and found it in 2006 when he took up a post as assistant editor.
In 2007 he was appointed launch editor of Which? Money, now the UK's best-selling personal finance magazine, and went on the following year to be appointed editor of the organisation's flagship title. From the start, he urged his team to produce investigations that were more ambitious and harder-hitting, determined to use their skills to expose wrongdoing and make people's lives better. He also wanted investigations followed up, so that companies that had promised to improve would be held to account. During his final weeks, Martyn was still reading Which? investigations in hospital and emailing comments and ideas to researchers.
In 2011 he won a British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year award, for which he is again shortlisted this year. Which?'s Affordable Energy campaign has also just been shortlisted for the society's campaign of the year award.
Martyn had two other abiding passions: Bristol City football club and his wife of 23 years, Frances, whom he first met at primary school. Frances recalls a conversation Martyn had with his consultant before he was diagnosed with skin cancer in June: "He said, 'I've nothing to feel negative about. I'm doing my dream job, I have a wife and home that I love and I've been lucky enough to have achieved more with my life already than some people do in twice the time.'"