The Spectator is launching a U.S. print version
A May 2015 issue of The Spectator. Photo: NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The Spectator, the world’s oldest English-language magazine, is launching a U.S. monthly print version for the first time in its history this fall, after starting a U.S. digital presence last year.
Why it matters: The publication has been published in the U.K. continuously since it launched 1828 as a weekly. Its former editor, Boris Johnson, just took the reins as the U.K.'s new prime minister.
What's next: The first issue of the monthly publication will debut in October 2019, with a glossy, high-end look and feel — more like a coffee table magazine than for a doctor's office.
- The magazine will be primarily driven by subscriptions, with limited newsstand distribution to select locations. It will also sell advertising.
- Coverage will include politics and policy, but also lifestyle, arts, culture, food and wine.
- Zack Christenson, a former journalist turned tech entrepreneur is U.S. publisher and Freddy Gray is U.S. editor. The U.S. bureau will be based in D.C.
- It's currently staffed with 7 editors and writers, and a stable of regular contributors and columnists.
The big picture: Some of the other big names in U.K. print media are doing ok, and their U.S. expansion efforts also seem to be working.
- Guardian Media Group says it hit its goal of breaking even last year. Revenue for the online-only Guardian US and Guardian Australia operations also grew substantially, making up 14% of the company's total revenues.
- News UK, parent company of The Times and Sunday Times, says it now has more than 300,000 paid digital-only subscribers between the two outlets. The owner claims that 2019 had been its “most successful year” since launching a digital subscription model in 2010.
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