At the Sunday Times, he had been chief interviewer for the paper, the youngest in its history, and prior to that he was a feature writer on News Review.
He joined the magazine when it had a circulation of 34,556 copies, which was down by 29.9% on the previous year.
Hattersley said: "It has been a huge honour to edit Arena and work with such a talented team who I know will continue to make Arena the most modern, innovative men's lifestyle magazine in the business."
During his 12 months at the title, he relaunched the monthly men's magazine, but the October revamp failed to stop the title haemorrhaging readers.
Now owned by Bauer, the magazine posted a period-on-period decline of 18.3% in the six-month period ending December, taking it down to just 25,232 copies. Year on year, it is down by 27%.
While Bauer searches for a replacement, executive editor Mat Smith, who has six years' experience on Arena, is temporarily taking over.
However, speculation persists the title could be closed, although keeping it going did give Emap and now H Bauer access to certain kinds of advertisers it might not otherwise attract.
A spokeswoman for Bauer denied there were plans to close the title.
In addition to the change of editor on Arena, Bauer has made two appointments on the advertising team across its men's portfolio, which includes FHM and Zoo. Miles Dunbar joins Bauer as fashion director and Helen Walker has moved from display sales to fashion executive.
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