New Statesman

:This article is about New Statesman magazine. For the Rik Mayall sitcom of the same name, see The New Statesman.

Decline and crisis

After Johnson's departure in 1970, the Statesman went into a long period of circulation decline under successive editors: Richard Crossman (1970-72), who tried to edit it at the same time as playing a major role in Labour politics; Anthony Howard (1972-78), whose recruits to the paper included Christopher Hitchens, Martin Amis and James Fenton (surprisingly, the arch anti-Socialist Auberon Waugh was writing for the Statesman at this time before returning to his more natural home of The Spectator); Bruce Page (1978-82), who turned it into a specialist in investigative journalism and sacked Arthur Marshall, who had been writing for the Statesman on and off since 1935, as a columnist, allegedly because of the latter's support for Margaret Thatcher; Hugh Stephenson (1982-86), under whom it took a strong position again for unilateral nuclear disarmament; John Lloyd (1986-87), who swung the paper's politics back to the centre; Stuart Weir (1987-90), under whose editorship the Statesman founded the Charter 88 constitutional reform pressure group; and Steve Platt (1990-96). By 1996 it was selling 23,000 copies a week.

Related Topics:
Richard Crossman - Anthony Howard - Christopher Hitchens - Martin Amis - James Fenton - Auberon Waugh - The Spectator - Bruce Page - Arthur Marshall - Margaret Thatcher - Hugh Stephenson - Unilateral nuclear disarmament - John Lloyd - Stuart Weir - Charter 88 - Steve Platt

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The Statesman acquired the weekly New Society in 1988 and merged with it, becoming New Statesman and Society for the next eight years. In 1993, the Statesman was sued by the prime minister, John Major, after it published an article that discussed rumours that he was having an extramarital affair with a cook. Although the action was settled out of court for a minimal sum, the paper's legal costs came close to bankrupting it.

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