The New Statesman is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was connected then with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members of the socialist Fabian Society. The magazine has, according to its present self-description, a left-of-centre political position. The longest-serving editor was Kingsley Martin (1930–60). The current editor is Jason Cowley, who assumed the post at the end of September 2008. The magazine has notably recognized and published new writers and critics, as well as encouraged major careers. Its contributors have included John Maynard Keynes, Bertrand Russell, Virginia Woolf, Christopher Hitchens, and Paul Johnson. Historically, the magazine was sometimes affectionately referred to as "The Staggers" because of crises in funding, ownership and circulation. The nickname is now used as the title of its politics blog. Its regular writers, critics and columnists include Mehdi Hasan, Will Self, John Gray, Laurie Penny, Ed Smith and Helen Lewis, the deputy editor. Circulation peaked in the mid 1960 and the magazine had a certified average circulation of 33,395 in 2015, up 14 per cent year-on-year. Traffic to the magazine's website reached a new record high in October 2015, with 20 million page views. In September 2014, as part of its digital expansion, the magazine launched two new websites, the urbanism-focused CityMetric and May2015.com, a data and polling site. The New Statesman was founded in 1913 by Sidney and Beatrice Webb with the support of George Bernard Shaw and other prominent members of the Fabian Society. Its first editor was Clifford Sharp, who remained editor until 1928. Desmond MacCarthy joined the paper in 1913 and became literary editor, recruiting Cyril Connolly to the staff in 1928. In November 1914, three months after the beginning of the First World War, the New Statesmen published a lengthy anti-war supplement by George Bernard Shaw, "Common Sense About The War", a scathing dissection of its causes, which castigated all nations involved but particularly savaged the British. It sold a phenomenal 75,000 copies by the end of the year and created an international sensation. The New York Times reprinted it as America began its lengthy debate on entering what was then called "the European War". During Sharp's last two years in the post, from around 1926, he was debilitated by chronic alcoholism and the paper was actually edited by his deputy Charles Mostyn Lloyd. Lloyd stood in after Sharp's departure until the appointment of Kingsley Martin as editor in 1930 – a position Martin was to hold for 30 years. Although the Webbs and most Fabians were closely associated with the Labour Party, Sharp was drawn increasingly to the Asquith Liberals.

• published: 21 Feb 2016
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