Brand
New Statesman
Owner
Progressive Media
What's happened?
Magazine has relaunched
A new masthead, plus an assortment of new sections and columnists complete the title's transformation. New columnists include novelist Will Self, comedian Mark Watson, David Blanchflower (formerly of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee), Philip Bond (director of the thinktank ResPublica) and John Gray, the political philosopher.
The revamped issue has a fresh feel and looks good, and is split into four key sections - Intelligence, which features an overview of the week's news; Features, including a "50 people who matter today" list; The Issues, featuring short articles and columns; and The Critics.
It does, however, still suffer from an overabundance of columns, particularly in the front half, and the exclusive Gordon Brown interview in the 32-page Labour Party Conference special was hard going for all but the most committed reader.
This criticism could also be levelled at a number of articles in what was a mammoth 100-page launch issue this week. The New Statesman is a shadow of the former political opinion former it used to be, selling 4,656 copies at news-stand last year, with subscriptions bringing that figure up to 23,000.
Its more "nuanced" approach is therefore unlikely to have much of an impact on these meagre figures as these changes are likely to go unnoticed by most observers.
It could be argued that its best chance of getting itself noticed again and growing its circulation lies not in this redesign, but in the likelihood of a Tory government following next year's election. This would give it renewed gusto as it would once again have a cause to champion, which would make it a much more entertaining read.
What's good?
The new design.
What could be better?
Fewer columns and more interesting features.
Would I book my clients into this?
Yes, but only for a relevant brief.
Mark Grady, Investment manager, Starcom