New Statesman

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Foundation

he New Statesman was created in 1913 with the aim of permeating the
educated and in uential classes with progressive ideas. Its founders

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were Sidney and Beatrice Webb (later Lord and Lady Pass eld), along with
Bernard Shaw, and a small but in uential group of Fabians. The Webbs'
previous publication, The Crusade, had existed to gain support for the
Minority Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Law, and for Beatrice
Webb's National Committee for the Prevention of Destitution. However, it
had died after less than two years, when it became obvious that no
government would swallow the Minority Report whole, with all its socialist
implications. The New Statesman was created to

ll the gap.

The Webbs talked, argued, wrote letters and discussed the project with their
friends incessantly. They eventually raised 5,000: 1,000 each from
Bernard Shaw, Edward Whitley, Henry Harben and Ernest Simon, the
balance in smaller sums. Cli ord Sharp, who had edited The Crusade, was
appointed Editor. The name Statesman was proposed, but this was already the
name of India's largest English language newspaper; as an alternative, the
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Tory ex-Prime Minister Arthur Balfour suggested the New Statesman, and
the magazine was

rst published on 12 April 1913, with a pre-publication

subscription list of 2,300 - and all the auguries against it.

From the

rst issue, the magazine's tone of didactic and brisk common

sense was set. Whether in pointing out that the weak are not always and
automatically the virtuous in international politics, or advocating the
advance booking of all theatre seats, the note was one of brass-tacks and no
nonsense - in contrast with the high moral tone of the rival Nation. Sharp
himself wrote:
"We did not merely profess to have no political a

liations, we had none.

We were soon to discover, however, that a great many people who profess
to admire independent political thought are apt to be both puzzled and
shocked when they come across it."
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Sixteen months after the magazine's

rst issue, Archduke Ferdinand was

assassinated and Europe plunged into war. A year later, with sales of 3,000
copies a week, the magazine was second in circulation only to theSpectator
among the sixpenny weeklies and, in spite of continually upsetting everyone
in turn throughout the war years, it emerged with a circulation of 6,000 and
its in uence immeasurably enhanced.

The Nation and Athenaeum and the Weekend Review

By 1931, with the appointment of a new Editor, Kingsley Martin, the New
Statesman was in a position to take over one of its main competitors among
the political and literary weeklies: Nation and Athenaeum. The history of the
Athenaeum went back as far as 1828. It had a tradition of attracting the very
best writers of the age; in the early twentieth century, the Athenaeum could
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boast such 'star' writers as Max Beerbohm, Katherine Mans eld, Virginia
Woolf, Thomas Hardy, Robert Graves, Edith Sitwell, T S Eliot, Edmund
Blunden and Julian Huxley.
However, in 1921, with falling circulation, the Athenaeum was incorporated
into the Nation. The younger magazine was also attracting writers of great
renown: H N Brailsford, J A Hobson, Harold Laski, Leonard Woolf, David
Garnett, G D H Cole and almost all the Bloomsbury Set. For fourteen years,
the Nation's brand of Liberal radicalism

ourished. It soon became obvious,

however, that it could not continue as an independent competitor to the

more left-wing New Statesman, whose growth was contributing to the other
publication's demise. Thus, on 28 February 1931, the

rst number of New

Statesman and Nation (incorporating Athenaeum) was published.

A further title was acquired two years later. The Weekend Review had been
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established in March 1930 - not a propitious time for founding any

enterprise -

nanced by Samuel Courtauld and edited by Gerald Barry. By

1933, the going was getting increasingly tough for weekly reviews, and its
sales of were insu

cient to achieve

nancial viability. After some cli -

hanging negotiations, the New Statesman acquired another title for its
masthead - and the famous "This England" and "Weekend Competition"
features. The New Statesman and Nation (incorporating The Weekend
Review)

rst appeared on 6 January 1934. It was during this period that,

under Martin's editorship, the magazine is generally felt to have had its

rst

golden age, with its circulation peaking at almost 100,000 around 1959.

Recent History
The Nation su

x was dropped on 6 July 1957, and The Weekend Review on 6

November 1964. Apart from one or two still popular features, the only
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remaining trace of the New Statesman's tributaries was in the imprint on the
contents page where their names are listed; this note has since been moved
to the classi ed pages at the back of the magazine.
Editors since Martin's departure have included: John Freeman, one time
Labour minister and television presenter and later a British Ambassador to
Washington; Richard Crossman, who had been Secretary of State for Social
Services in the

rst Wilson cabinet; and Bruce Page, an Australian born

farmer and Sunday Times journalist who tried to make the magazine a leader
in hard-nosed investigative reporting.
On 10 June 1988, as the magazine celebrated its 75th anniversary, New
Statesman merged with New Society, a magazine covering the
social sciences, to form the New Statesman and Society. (The su

eld of the
x was

dropped in 1996). However, despite the merger generally being seen as a

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takeover by the New Statesman, the

rst two editors of the combined

magazine, Stuart Weir and Steve Platt, both came from the editorial team of
the New Society. Another title, Marxism Today, was acquired in December
1991. In April 2013, the New Statesman celebrated its centenary by publishing
an 186-page edition, the largest single issue in its history.

New Statesman
Online Newstatesman.com

rst went live in November 1998, with vote and

comment facilities that allowed people across the globe to discuss the issues
considered in the magazine. It subsequently introduced a subscriber only
service and an exact electronic edition of the magazine available to download
hot-o -the-press anywhere in the world.
Relaunched in 2006, newstatesman.com has forged its own identity carrying
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a raft of original content including blogs, articles and columns - as well as

everything we publish in the magazine. The website has facilitated not just a
new generation of readers, but a readership that stretches around the world.
Relaunched again in January 2011, tra

c to the site more than trebled

between 2009 and 2011 and it is increasingly recognised as a must-visit part

of the web.

List of editors
Cli ord Sharp 1913-31*
J C Squire 1917-20
Charles Mostyn Lloyd 1928-31
Kingsley Martin1931-60
John Freeman 1961-65
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Paul Johnson 1965-70

Richard Crossman 1970-72
Anthony Howard 1972-78
Bruce Page 1978-82
Hugh Stephenson 1982-86
John Lloyd 1986-87
Stuart Weir 1987-91
Steve Platt 1991-96
Ian Hargreaves 1996-98
Peter Wilby 1998-2005
John Kampfner 2005-2008
Sue Matthias 2008**
Jason Cowley 2008 to date
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*Sharp was technically editor from 1913-31, but because of his alcoholism Mostyn
Lloyd covered for him from 1928-31. J C Squire, the NS literary editor, was acting
editor while Sharp was absent on wartime duties (1917-20).
**Acting (February to September)

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