New Statesman

The New Statesman (known from 1931 to 1964 as the New Statesman and Nation) is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members of the socialist Fabian Society, such as George Bernard Shaw, who was a founding director. The longest-serving editor was Kingsley Martin (1930–1960), and the current editor is Tom McTague, who assumed the post in 2025. It is owned by the data businessman Mike Danson, alongside other publications including Press Gazette and Spear's. In the 2020s, the magazine is a print–digital hybrid. According to its self-description, it has a modern liberal and progressive political position. Jason Cowley, the magazine's former editor, has described the New Statesman as a publication "of the left, for the left", but also as "a political and literary magazine" with "sceptical" politics. The magazine has recognised and published new writers and critics, as well as encouraging major careers. Its contributors have included John Maynard Keynes, Bertrand Russell, Virginia Woolf, Christopher Hitchens, and Paul Johnson. Historically, the magazine was jocularly referred to as The Staggers – an example of Oxford "-er" undergraduate slang. The nickname is used as the title of its rolling politics blog. Circulation was at its highest in the mid-1960s at 93,000. The magazine encountered substantial difficulties in the following decades as readership fell, but it was growing again by the mid-2010s. In 2020, the certified average circulation was 36,591. Traffic to the magazine's website that year reached a new high with 27 million page views and four million distinct users. Associated websites have included CityMetric (defunct since 2020), Spotlight and NewStatesman Tech. In 2018, New Statesman America was launched.