 | |
 The Spectator 25 April 2020 cover | |
| Editor | Michael Gove |
|---|---|
| Categories | Politics, culture |
| Frequency | Weekly |
| Publisher | Paul Marshall |
| Paid circulation | 106,556 |
| Unpaid circulation | 1,185 |
| Total circulation (2023) | 107,812 |
| Founder | Robert Stephen Rintoul |
| First issue | 6 July 1828; 197 years ago (1828-07-06) |
| Company | Old Queen Street Ventures Limited |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Based in | 22 Old Queen Street, Westminster, London |
| Language | English |
| Website | |
| ISSN | 0038-6952 |
| OCLC | 1766325 |
The Spectator is a weekly British political and culturalnews magazine.[1] It was first published in July 1828,[2] making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world.[3]The Spectator is politicallyconservative, and its principal subject areas are politics and culture. Alongside columns and features on current affairs, the magazine also contains arts pages on books, music, opera, film, and TV reviews. It had an average circulation of 107,812 as of December 2023, excludingAustralia.[4]
Editorship of the magazine has often been a step on the ladder to high office in theConservative Party in the United Kingdom; its past editors includeBoris Johnson (1999–2005) and other former cabinet membersIan Gilmour (1954–1959),Iain Macleod (1963–1965), andNigel Lawson (1966–1970). The former ConservativeMPMichael Gove took over fromFraser Nelson as editor on 4 October 2024.[5][6][7]
Today, the magazine is a print-digital hybrid. In 2020,The Spectator became the longest-lived current affairs magazine in history (overtakingThe Gentleman's Magazine, which published from 1731 to 1922), and was also the first magazine ever to publish 10,000 issues.[8][9] In September 2024,The Spectator was acquired by British hedge fund managerPaul Marshall, owner ofUnHerd and co-owner ofGB News.[10]
The Spectator's founder, Scottish reformerRobert Stephen Rintoul, former editor of theDundee Advertiser and the London-basedAtlas, launched the paper on 6 July 1828.[2][11] Rintoul consciously revived the title from the celebrated, if short-lived, daily publication byJoseph Addison andRichard Steele.[12][13] As he had long been determined "to edit a perfect newspaper",[14] Rintoul initially insisted on "absolute power"[14] over content, commencing a long-lasting tradition of the paper's editor and proprietor being one and the same person. Although he wrote little himself, "every line and word passed through thealembic of his brain."[15]
The Spectator's political outlook in its first thirty years reflected Rintoul'sliberal-radical agenda.[16] Despite its political stance, it was widely regarded and respected for its non-partisanship, in both its political and cultural criticism. Rintoul initially advertised his new title as a "family paper", the euphemistic term for a journal free from strong political rhetoric, but events soon compelled him to confess that it was no longer possible to be "a mere Spectator". Two years into its existence,The Spectator came out strongly for wide-reaching parliamentary reform: it produced supplements detailing vested interests in the Commons and Lords, coined the well-known phrase "The Bill, the whole Bill and nothing but the Bill", and helped drive through theGreat Reform Act of 1832. Virulently anti-Tory in its politics,The Spectator strongly objected to the appointment of theDuke of Wellington as prime minister, condemning him as "a Field Marshal whose political career proves him to be utterly destitute of political principle – whose military career affords ample evidence of his stern and remorseless temperament."[17]
The paper spent its first century at premises on Wellington Street (nowLancaster Place). Despite its robust criticism of the Conservative Party leaderRobert Peel for several years,The Spectator rallied behind him when he split the Tory party by successfully repealing theCorn Laws. Rintoul's fundamental principles were freedom of the individual, freedom of the press and freedom of trade, of religious tolerance and freedom from blind political adherence. The magazine was vocal in its opposition to theFirst Opium War (1839–1842), commenting that "all the alleged aims of the expedition against China are vague, illimitable, and incapable of explanation, save only that of making the Chinese pay the opium-smugglers."[18] The magazine further wrote: "There does not appear to be much glory gained in a contest so unequal that hundreds are killed on one side and none on the other. What honour is there in going to shoot men, certain that they cannot hurt you? The cause of the war, be it remembered, is as disreputable as the strength of the parties is unequal. The war is undertaken in support of a co-partnery of opium-smugglers, in which theAnglo-Indian Government may be considered as the principal partner."[19]
In 1853,The Spectator's lead book reviewerGeorge Brimley published an anonymous and unfavourable notice ofCharles Dickens'sBleak House, typical of the paper's enduring contempt for him as a "popular" writer "amusing the idle hours of the greatest number of readers; not, we may hope, without improvement to their hearts, but certainly without profoundly affecting their intellects or deeply stirring their emotions."[20] Rintoul died in April 1858, having sold the magazine two months earlier. The circulation had already been falling, under particular pressure from its new rival,The Saturday Review. Its new owner, the 27-year-old John Addyes Scott, kept the purchase quiet, but Rintoul's death made explicit the change of guard. His tenure was unremarkable, and subscribers continued to fall.[21] By the end of the year, Scott sought his escape, selling the title for £4,200 in December 1858 (equivalent to £533,901 in 2023) to two British-based Americans, James McHenry andBenjamin Moran. While McHenry was a businessman, Moran was an assistant secretary to the American ambassador,George M. Dallas; they saw their purchase as a means to influence British opinion on American affairs.[22]
The editor wasThornton Leigh Hunt, a friend of Moran who had also worked for Rintoul. Hunt was also nominally the purchaser, having been given the necessary monies in an attempt by McHenry and Moran to disguise the American ownership. Circulation declined with this loss of independence and inspirational leadership, as the views ofJames Buchanan, then President of the United States, came to the fore. Within weeks, as the last pre-American ownership issue appears to have been that of 25 December 1858. the editorial line followed Buchanan's pronouncements in being "neither pro-slavery nor pro-abolitionist. To unsympathetic observers Buchanan's policy seemed to apportion blame for the impasse on the slavery question equally on pro-slavery and abolitionist factions – and rather than work out a solution, simply to argue that a solution would take time.The Spectator now would publicly support that 'policy'".[23] This set it at odds with most of the British press, but gained it the sympathy of expatriate Americans in the country. Richard Fulton notes that from then until 1861, "theSpectator's commentary on American affairs read like a Buchanan administration propaganda sheet." and that this represented avolte-face.[23] Under Hunt's tenure,The Spectator may even have been steered by financial support from the court ofNapoleon III.[24]
The need to promote the Buchanan position in Britain had been reduced as British papers such asThe Times andThe Saturday Review turned in his favour, fearing the potential effects of a split in the Union. AsAbraham Lincoln was set to succeed the vacillating Buchanan after the1860 United States presidential election, the owners decided to stop pumping money into a loss-making publication: as Moran confided to his diary, "it don't pay, never did since Hunt became its owner."[25] On 19 January 1861,The Spectator was sold to a journalist,Meredith Townsend, for the marked-down sum of £2,000. Though not yet thirty, Townsend had spent the previous decade as an editor in India, and was prepared to restore to the paper an independent voice in a fast-changing world. From the outset, Townsend took up an anti-Buchanan, anti-slavery position, arguing that his unwillingness to act decisively had been a weakness and a contributor to the problems apparent in the US.[23] He soon went into partnership withRichard Holt Hutton, the editor ofThe Economist, whose primary interests were literature and theology. Hutton's close friendWilliam Gladstone later called him "the first critic of the nineteenth century".[16] Townsend's writing inThe Spectator confirmed him as one of the finest journalists of his day, and he has since been called "the greatest leader writer ever to appear in the English Press."[16]
The two men remained co-proprietors and joint editors for 25 years, taking a strong stand on some of the most controversial issues of their day. They supported theUnion against theConfederacy in theAmerican Civil War, an unpopular position which, at the time, did serious damage to the paper's circulation, reduced to some 1,000 readers. The issue of 25 January 1862, published in the wake of theTrent Affair, argued that "The Southern Bid" for active support in return for an Abolition promise, "demands careful examination".[26] In time, the paper regained readers when the victory of the North validated its principled stance.[16] They also launched an all-out assault onBenjamin Disraeli, accusing him in a series of leaders of jettisoning ethics for politics by ignoring the atrocities committed against Bulgarian civilians by theOttoman Empire in the 1870s.[27]
In 1886,The Spectator parted company withWilliam Ewart Gladstone when he declared his support forIrish Home Rule. Committed to defending the Union ahead of theLiberal Party line, Townsend and Hutton aligned themselves with theLiberal Unionist wing. As a result,H. H. Asquith (the future Prime Minister), who had served as a leader-writer for ten years, left his post. Townsend was succeeded by a young journalist namedJohn St Loe Strachey, who would remain associated with the paper for the next 40 years. When Hutton died in 1897, Strachey became co-owner with Townsend; by the end of the year Strachey was made sole editor and proprietor. As chief leader-writer, general manager, literary critic and all things beside, Strachey embodied the spirit ofThe Spectator until the 1920s. Among his various schemes were the establishment of a Spectator Experimental Company, to show that new soldiers could be trained up to excellence in six months, the running of a Cheap Cottage Exhibition, which laid the foundations for Letchworth Garden City, and the impassioned defence of Free Trade againstJoseph Chamberlain's protectionist 'Tariff Reform' programme.[citation needed]
Within two years he had doubled the paper's circulation, which peaked at 23,000. In the early decades of the twentieth century it was heralded as "the most influential of all the London weeklies".[28] The First World War put the paper and its editor under great strain: after the conflict it seemed to be behind the times, and circulation began to fall away. Even the introduction of signed articles, overturning the paper's fixed policy of anonymity for its first century, did little to help. After years of illness, Strachey decided at the end of 1924 to sell his controlling interest in the paper to his recently appointed business manager,Evelyn Wrench. Although he gained a second wind as a novelist, Strachey died two years later in 1928.[citation needed]
For his first year as proprietor,John Evelyn Wrench appointed John (Jack) Atkins his editor, who had worked on the paper for the last two decades, acting as editor during Strachey's recurrent bouts of illness. But the relationship did not work: as Atkins lamented to his long-standing friend,Winston Churchill, Wrench "continually wants to interfere and he is very ignorant".[29] Wrench duly took over the editorship in 1926, successfully channeling the enthusiasm of Strachey. His global connections helped secure interviews withHenry Ford,Mahatma Gandhi andBenito Mussolini. Perhaps his most remembered achievement as editor ofThe Spectator was the campaign to easeunemployment in the mining town ofAberdare, one of the worst hit by the crisis of 1928, when joblessness reached 40% inSouth Wales. Within three months, the paper's appeal for the town's relief raised over £12,000 (equivalent to £913,252 in 2023).[28] A statuette of an Aberdare miner, presented in gratitude toThe Spectator, still sits in the editor's office, bearing the inscription: "From the Townsfolk of Aberdare in Grateful Recognition: 'The Greatest of These is Love'".[30]
Wrench retired as editor in 1932 (he remained the magazine's proprietor), appointing the political editorWilson Harris his successor. Under HarrisThe Spectator became increasingly outspoken ondeveloping international politics in the 1930s, in particular on the rise offascism. Beneath a reader's letter referring to theNazi Party as "peaceful, orderly and kindly", Harris printed the following reply:
No facts in recent history are established more incontestably ... than the numerous cases of murder, assault, and various forms of intimidation for which the National Socialist Party in Germany has been responsible ... Theorganized economic boycott of the Jews is the climax.The Spectator has consistently shown itself a friend of Germany, but it is a friend of freedom first. Resort to violence is not condoned by styling it revolution.[31]
Harris broadly supported theEuropean foreign policy of the Chamberlain ministry andNeville Chamberlain'sappeasement. He praised theMunich agreement, explaining later that he believed "even the most desperate attempt to save the peace was worthwhile".[28] Harris abandoned the newspaper's support for appeasement after theKristallnacht pogrom, which Harris wrote "obliterated the word appeasement."[32] When the conflict broke, the team abandoned their Gower Street office forHarmondsworth, but within a few days decided to return to London: the basement caught fire from shrapnel, and the printers werebombed, but the paper continued to appear each week. Although the Second World War requiredThe Spectator to downgrade its size and paper quality, its readership doubled during the conflict, exceeding 50,000. From 1945 to 1950, Harris served as MP forCambridge University; although he stood as an independent, this was the first formal overlap betweenThe Spectator and the House of Commons. In February 1947, when a fuel shortage suspended the publication of weekly magazines,The Spectator appeared in an abridged form over two successive Thursdays on page 2 of theDaily Mail.[citation needed]
In 1954, Wrench and his co-ownerAngus Watson soldThe Spectator to the barristerIan Gilmour, who restored theSpectator tradition of simultaneously acting as editor. Having a libertarian and pro-European outlook, he "enlivened the paper and injected a new element of irreverence, fun and controversy".[16] He was critical of bothAnthony Eden's andHarold Macmillan's governments, and while supporting the Conservatives was also friendly toHugh Gaitskell andGaitskellism.[33] Gilmour lentThe Spectator's voice to the campaign to endcapital punishment in Britain, writing an incensed leader attacking the hanging ofRuth Ellis in 1955, in which he claimed "Hanging has become the national sport", and that the home secretaryGwilym Lloyd George, for not reprieving the sentence, "has now been responsible for the hanging of two women over the past eight months".[28]
The Spectator opposed Britain's involvement in theSuez crisis in 1956, strongly criticising the government's handling of the debacle. The paper went on to oppose Macmillan's government's re-election in the1959 United Kingdom general election, complaining: "The continued Conservative pretence that Suez was a good, a noble, a wise venture has been too much to stomach ... the Government is taking its stand on a solid principle: 'Never admit a mistake.'"[28] The paper also says that it was influential in campaigning for thedecriminalisation of homosexuality.[34] It gave vocal support to the proposals of theWolfenden Committee in 1957, condemning the "utterly irrational and illogical" old laws on homosexuality: "Not only is the law unjust in conception, it is almost inevitably unjust in practice."[28]
In March 1957, Jenny Nicholson, a frequent contributor, wrote a piece on theItalian Socialist Party congress inVenice, which mentioned threeLabour Party politicians (Aneurin Bevan,Richard Crossman, andMorgan Phillips) "who puzzled the Italians by filling themselves like tanks with whisky and coffee".[35] All three sued for libel, the case went to trial, andThe Spectator was forced to make a large payment in damages and costs, a sum well over the equivalent of £150,000 today.[36] It has since emerged that "all three plaintiffs, to a greater or lesser degree, perjured themselves in court".[36]
Gilmour gave up the editorship in 1959, in part to abet his chance of selection as a Conservative MP. He appointed his deputyBrian Inglis, who introduced to the magazine a fresh spirit of political satire. In 1959—much to the embarrassment of Gilmour (who remained the owner)—The Spectator advised either voting for the Liberal Party or tactically abstaining. Despite a marked increase in sales, Gilmour felt thatThe Spectator was losing its political edge, so replaced him in 1962 withIain Hamilton. Hamilton successfully balanced a keener focus on current affairs with some more raucous contributions as the young team behindPrivate Eye were commissioned to write a mock eight-pageChild's Guide to Modern Culture.[37] Much to the shock of Hamilton and theSpectator staff, Gilmour replaced Hamilton in 1963 withIain Macleod, the Conservative MP who had resigned from the cabinet on the controversial appointment of SirAlec Douglas-Home to succeedHarold Macmillan as prime minister. A widely circulated letter, signed bySpectator journalists and board members, berated Gilmour for mistreating an admired editor and appointing an active politician who could jeopardise the independence of the magazine: "We believe strongly thatThe Spectator, with its long and honourable history of independent opinion, should not be tossed about at the whim of the proprietor or lose its independence by identification with a narrow political faction."[38]
Two months into his post, in January 1964, Macleod intensified the shock by revealing the behind-the-scenes machinations of the Conservative party. In a long article entitled "The Tory Leadership", ostensibly a review of a new book (The Fight for the Tory Leadership) byRandolph Churchill, Macleod laid out his version of events in great detail. In disclosing, from the horse's mouth, the mysterious circumstances of Douglas-Home's appointment, the article caused an immediate sensation. Churchill's book was all but obliterated by the review, which said that "four fifths" of it "could have been compiled by anyone with a pair of scissors, a pot of paste and a built-in prejudice against MrButler and SirWilliam Haley".[39][40] That week's edition, bearing the headline "Iain Macleod, What Happened", sold a record number of copies.[citation needed]
The "Tory Leadership" article prompted a furious response from manySpectator readers and caused Macleod, for a time, to be shunned by political colleagues. He eventually regained his party's favour, however, and rejoined the shadow cabinet in the same year. On his appointment as Shadow Chancellor in 1965, he stepped down as editor on the last day of the year, to be replaced byNigel Lawson. Sometimes called "The Great Procrastinator" because of his tendency to leave writing leaders until the last minute,[16] Lawson had been City editor forThe Sunday Telegraph and Alec Douglas-Home's personal assistant during the1964 United Kingdom general election. In 1966, largely due to Lawson,The Spectator opposed America's increasing military commitment inVietnam. In a signed article he estimated "the risks involved in an American withdrawal from Vietnam are less than the risks in escalating a bloody and brutal war".[36]
In 1967, Ian Gilmour, who by then had joined parliament and was already finding the proprietorship a hindrance in political life, soldThe Spectator toHarry Creighton for £75,000 (equivalent to £1,719,458 in 2023).[41] In 1970, Creighton replaced Lawson as editor withGeorge Gale; there had been growing resentment between the two men.[36] Gale shared Creighton's political outlook,[16] in particular his strong opposition to the EEC, and much of the next five years was spent attacking the pro-EEC prime ministerEdward Heath, treating his eventual defeat byMargaret Thatcher with undisguised delight. Gale's almost obsessive opposition to the EEC and antagonistic attitude towards Heath began to lose the magazine readers. In 1973 Creighton took over the editorship himself, but was, if possible, even less successful in stemming the losses. Circulation fell from 36,000 in 1966 to below 13,000. As one journalist who joinedThe Spectator at that time said: "It gave the impression, an entirely accurate one, of a publication surviving on a shoestring".[36] George Gale later remarked that Creighton had only wanted the job to get intoWho's Who.[36]
In 1975, Creighton soldThe Spectator toHenry Keswick, again for £75,000 (Creighton sold the 99 Gower Street premises separately, so the magazine moved to 56 Doughty Street).[42] Keswick was chairman of theJardine Matheson multinational corporation. He was drawn to the paper partly because he harboured political aspirations (the paper's perk as a useful stepping stone to Westminster was, by now, well established), but also because his father had been a friend ofPeter Fleming, its well-known columnist (under the name "Strix"). Keswick gave the job of editor to "the only journalist he knew",[36]Alexander Chancellor, an old family friend and his mother's godson, with whom he had been atEton andCambridge. Before then, Chancellor had worked atReuters news agency and had been a scriptwriter and reporter forITN. In spite of his relative inexperience, he was to become known as "one of the best editors in the history ofThe Spectator".[36]
Chancellor's editorship of the paper relied principally on a return to earlier values. He adopted a new format and a more traditional weekly style, with the front page displaying five cover lines above the leader. Most significantly, he recognised the need "to bring together a number of talented writers and, with the minimal of editorial interference, let them write".[36] To this end he persuadedAuberon Waugh (who had been sacked by Nigel Lawson) to return from theNew Statesman, and enticedRichard West andJeffrey Bernard from the same magazine. Another columnist recruited by Chancellor wasTaki Theodoracopulos whose column "High Life" was then printed beside Bernard's "Low Life". Taki's column, frequently criticised for its content by the press,[43] remains in the paper. In September 1978, a 96-page issue was released to markThe Spectator's 150th anniversary.William Rees-Mogg congratulated the paper in aTimes's leading article, praising it in particular for its important part in "the movement away fromcollectivism".[44]
Chancellor was replaced by the 27-year-oldCharles Moore in February 1984, after the magazine's then ownerAlgy Cluff had become concerned thatThe Spectator was "lacking in political weight" and considered Chancellor to be "commercially irresponsible".[36] Moore had been a leader writer atThe Daily Telegraph before Chancellor recruited him toThe Spectator as political commentator. Under Moore, the paper became more political than it had been under Chancellor. The new editor adopted an approach that was, in general, pro-Margaret Thatcher, while showing no restraint in opposing her on certain issues. The paper called theAnglo-Irish Agreement "a fraudulent prospectus" in 1985, came out against theSingle European Act, and in 1989 criticised thehandover of Hong Kong toChina. Moore wrote that, if Britain failed to allow the city'sUK passport holdersright of abode in Britain, "we shall have to confess that, for the first time in our history, we have forced Britons to be slaves."[45] Moore also introduced several new contributors, including a restaurant column byNigella Lawson (the former editor's daughter), and a humorous column byCraig Brown. When Taki was briefly imprisoned for cocaine possession Moore refused to accept his resignation, explaining publicly: "We expect our High Life columnist to be high some of the time."[36]
The Spectator changed hands again in 1985, by which time it was facing financial meltdown, having an accumulated an overdraft of over £300,000.[how?] Cluff had reached the conclusion that the paper "would be best secured in the hands of a publishing group", and sold it to Australian companyJohn Fairfax, which promptly paid off the overdraft. With the support of its new proprietor, the paper was able to widen its readership through subscription drives and advertising, reaching a circulation of 30,000 in 1986, exceeding the circulation of theNew Statesman for the first time. The magazine was again sold in 1988, after an uncertain period during which several candidates, includingRupert Murdoch, attempted to buy the magazine. Moore wrote to Murdoch, saying: "Most of our contributors and many of our readers would be horrified at the idea of your buyingThe Spectator. They believe you are autocratic and that you have a bad effect on journalism of quality – they citeThe Times as the chief example."[36]
AsThe Spectator was bought by theTelegraph Group, Moore resigned the editorship in 1990 to become deputy editor ofThe Daily Telegraph. He was replaced by his own deputy editor,Dominic Lawson—the former editor's son. Shortly after becoming editor, Lawson became responsible for the resignation of a cabinet minister when he interviewed theSecretary of State for Trade and Industry,Nicholas Ridley. During the interview, Ridley described the proposedEconomic and Monetary Union as "a German racket designed to take over the whole of Europe", and seemed to draw comparisons between the German ChancellorHelmut Kohl andAdolf Hitler. The interview appeared in the issue of 14 July 1990, the cover of which showed a cartoon byNicholas Garland that showed Ridley painting a crude comb-over and a Hitler moustache onto a poster of Kohl. Ridley resigned from Thatcher's government immediately.[46][47]
The Spectator caused controversy in 1994 when it printed an article entitled "Kings of the Deal" on a claimed Jewish influence inHollywood, written byWilliam Cash, who at the time was based in Los Angeles and working mainly forThe Daily Telegraph, which had considered the article too risky to publish. Lawson thought Cash's idea was as old as Hollywood itself and that Lawson's being Jewish would mitigate adverse reactions to publication. There was considerable controversy. Although ownerConrad Black did not personally rebuke Lawson,Max Hastings, then editor ofThe Daily Telegraph, wrote with regard to Black, who also ownedThe Jerusalem Post at the time, "It was one of the few moments in my time with Conrad when I saw him look seriously rattled: 'You don't understand, Max. My entire interests in the United States and internationally could be seriously damaged by this'."[48]
The article was defended by some conservatives.John Derbyshire, who says he has "complicated and sometimes self-contradictory feelings about Jews", wrote onNational Review Online regarding what he saw as the Jewish overreaction to the article that "It was a display of arrogance, cruelty, ignorance, stupidity, and sheer bad manners by rich and powerful people towards a harmless, helpless young writer, and the Jews who whipped up this preposterous storm should all be thoroughly ashamed of themselves".[49] Lawson left in 1995 to become editor ofThe Sunday Telegraph, and was replaced by a deputy editor of the same newspaper,Frank Johnson. After the1997 United Kingdom general election, Johnson averted a decline inThe Spectator's sales by recruiting "New Labour contributors", and shifting the magazine's direction slightly away from politics. In 1996, the magazine's Christmas issue featured an interview with theSpice Girls, in which the band members gave their "Euro-sceptic and generally anti-Labour" views on politics. Shortly before her deathDiana, Princess of Wales, was depicted on the magazine's cover as the figurehead ofMohamed Al-Fayed's boat, The Jonikal.[50]
Before joiningThe Spectator as editor,Boris Johnson had worked forThe Times, the WolverhamptonExpress & Star, andThe Daily Telegraph. He had also briefly been political commentator forThe Spectator under Dominic Lawson, but Frank Johnson replaced him withBruce Anderson in 1995. Succeeding Frank Johnson in 1999, Johnson increasedSpectator subscriptions to a record 70,000 per year, and has been described as a "colourful editor".[51] In the2001 United Kingdom general election, Johnson was elected MP forHenley, and by 2004 had been made vice-chairman of the Conservative party, with a place inMichael Howard's shadow cabinet. In 2003, he explained his editorial policy forThe Spectator would "always be roughly speaking in favour of getting rid of Saddam, sticking up for Israel, free-market economics, expanding choice" and that the magazine was "not necessarily aThatcherite Conservative or aneo-conservative magazine, even though in our editorial coverage we tend to follow roughly the conclusions of those lines of arguments."[52] In February 2003, Johnson was the subject of aScotland Yard inquiry relating to a column byTaki Theodoracopulos titled "Thoughts on Thuggery" targeting barristerPeter Herbert, a black man.[53] Following the column's publication, Herbert had received over 40 racist emails, mostly from the United States, some of which contained death threats.[53] Johnson called the column "a terrible thing" which "should never have gone in."[53]
In October 2004, aSpectator editorial suggested that the death of the hostageKenneth Bigley was being over-sentimentalised by the people of Liverpool, accusing them of indulging in a "vicarious victimhood" and of possessing a "deeply unattractive psyche".[54] Simon Heffer had written the leader but, as editor, Johnson took full responsibility for it. Michael Howard subsequently ordered him to visit Liverpool on a "penitential pilgrimage".[55] At this time, the paper began jokingly to be referred to as the 'Sextator', owing to the number of sex scandals connected with the magazine during his editorship. These included an affair between columnistRod Liddle and the magazine's receptionist, and Johnson's own affair with another columnist,Petronella Wyatt. Johnson at first denied the relationship, dismissing the allegations as "an inverted pyramid of piffle", but was sacked from the Shadow Cabinet in November 2004 when they turned out to be true. In the same yearDavid Blunkett, the Home Secretary, resigned from the government after it emerged he had been having an affair with the publisher ofThe Spectator,Kimberly Quinn, and had fast-tracked her nanny's visa application.[56]
In 2005, circulation was as high as 60,000 by the time Johnson left to be the Shadow Minister for Higher Education. On the announcement of his departure,Andrew Neil, chairman ofThe Spectator[57][58] paid tribute to his editorship;[59] however, Neil later rebuked Johnson for having delegated most of his responsibilities to an assistant, in aChannel 4Dispatches episode titledBoris Johnson: Has He Run Out of Road?[60][61][62] During Johnson's editorship,Mary Wakefield began working at the magazine: she is now the magazine's commissioning editor and is married to Johnson's former political advisorDominic Cummings.[63][64]
In 2004, theBarclay Brothers purchased the Telegraph Group fromHollinger International, which includedThe Spectator within its titles.[65]
D'Ancona had been Deputy Editor atThe Sunday Telegraph, and before that an assistant editor atThe Times. During his four years as editor ofThe Spectator, he made several editorial and structural changes to the magazine, "not all of which were universally popular with readers". He ended the traditional summary of the week's events, "Portrait of the Week", and in 2006 launched a new lifestyle section entitled "You Earned It". He removedPeter Oborne as political editor, and appointedFraser Nelson in his place. He decided not to appoint a new media columnist to succeedStephen Glover, explaining, "I do not thinkThe Spectator needs a media columnist. Our pages are precious and I do not think the internal wranglings of our trade are high on the list ofSpectator readers' priorities."[66]
Perhaps the magazine's most important innovation under d'Ancona was the Coffee House blog, led byPeter Hoskin andJames Forsyth, launched in May 2007.[67] In 2007,The Spectator moved its offices from Doughty Street, which had been its home for 32 years, to 22 Old Queen Street in Westminster.The Spectator Australia was launched in October 2008. Apparently printed in Australia at the same time as, and with almost all the content of, the parent edition it finds its own cover illustrations and its first dozen pages are Australian.[68] Circulation reached a weekly average of 10,389 in January to December 2020.[69]
In August 2009,Fraser Nelson replaced d'Ancona as editor ofThe Spectator. In 2010, he unveiled a slight redesign of the paper, shrinking the cover illustration slightly, shifting the cover lines, in general, to the bottom, and spreading the contents section over a double-page. Playing down the changes, Nelson described the new look as "a tidy-up ... rather like restoring an old painting."[70]
An article in November 2011 byRod Liddle on the trial of two men eventually convicted for themurder of Stephen Lawrence led to theCrown Prosecution Service (CPS) deciding to prosecute the magazine for breaching reporting restrictions.[71] The magazine chose not to contest the case,[72] and the publisher Spectator 1828 Ltd pleaded guilty at the court hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court on 7 June 2012.[73] The magazine was fined £3,000, with £2,000 compensation awarded to Stephen Lawrence's parents and £625 costs.[74] According to Nelson, readers' most common reaction to the columnist was "don't tone down Rod", but "our non-readers don't like" him.[75] In June 2013, The Spectator Archive was launched,[76] containing 1.5 million pages from 180 years of published articles. In July 2013, the magazine ran a column byTaki Theodoracopulos defending the far-right Greek political partyGolden Dawn, which drew criticism.[77][78] In May 2018, Theodoracopulos published a column defending theWehrmacht.[79][80][81]
In August 2015,The Spectator received media attention and criticism after publishing an article byCharles Moore regarding the2015 Labour Party leadership election titled "HaveYvette Cooper andLiz Kendall got the looks for a leadership contest?", in which he wrote "there is an understanding that no leader – especially, despite the age of equality, a woman – can look grotesque on television and win a general election" and discussed the looks of the two female candidates in detail. The article was condemned by Liz Kendall; theFirst Minister of Scotland,Nicola Sturgeon; and the candidate for Labour nomination forMayor of London and former Minister and MPTessa Jowell along with several journalists and MPs from various parties.[82][83]
In 2018, Nelson and deputy editorFreddy Gray launched a digital-only version ofThe Spectator USA. The monthly print magazineThe Spectator US Edition,[84] alongside the website spectator.us, was launched with the Inaugural Edition in October 2019 and the publication surpassed 10,000 subscribers in 2020.[85] For the October 2020 issue, the title was changed toThe Spectator Est. 1828,[86] with the website remaining the same. For the June 2021 issue, the website changed to spectatorworld.com as the name changed again toThe Spectator World.[87]
In June 2023, it was reported that, following a breakdown in discussions relating to a financial dispute,Lloyds Bank was planning to take over control of the companies owning theDaily Telegraph andSpectator titles and sell them off.[88][89] Representatives of the Barclay family have described the reports as "irresponsible".[90] That same month, Telegraph Media Group Limited (TMG) was put up for sale, after its parent company B.UK, a Bermuda-based holding company, went into receivership. Howard and Aidan Barclay were removed as directors.[91] When a company linked to the United Arab Emirates attempted to buy TMG, chairman Andrew Neil threatened to quit, saying: "You cannot have a major mainstream newspaper group owned by an undemocratic government or dictatorship where no one has a vote."[92] Fraser Nelson, editor ofThe Spectator, also opposed the move, saying "the very reason why a foreign government would want to buy a sensitive asset is the very reason why a national government should be wary of selling them."[93]
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On 10 September 2024,The Spectator was purchased for £100 million byPaul Marshall, hedge fund manager and co-owner ofGB News.[94][95] The final price came after a bidding war againstRupert Murdoch,[96] and was more than double the £40m valuation given by media analysts.[95]
Spectator chairmanAndrew Neil, who clashed with Marshall during his brief tenure at GB News, announced his resignation with immediate effect one hour after the deal was completed.[95] He warned Marshall over editorial independence,[96] tellingSpectator staff: "My greatest regret is that I have not been able to find you a new home guaranteed to nurture the unique chemistry ofThe Spectator. [...] I cannot tell if the new owners will have the same reverence for editorial independence since they have not shared their thinking."[95] Neil had previously opposed Marshall's bid, saying that hedge fund managers should not own newspapers due to potential conflicts of interest.[97][98]
The Spectator was sold byRedbird IMI, whose CEO Jeff Zucker had previously called Marshall "unfit to own a newspaper", due tohis sharing of far-right content on Twitter, when Marshall and RedBird were battling to take control ofThe Telegraph.[99] A Conservative MP told theFinancial Times that Marshall's agenda "was one of destroying the Conservative party and having a new form of Trumpism in the UK", referencing populist GB News coverage. Another Conservative MP, on the right of the party, welcomed Marshall's proprietorship, describing Marshall as "thoughtful and interested in ideas, not tribally Conservative but committed to the best traditions of liberal democracy".[95] The acquisition includedThe Spectator's sister titleApollo and added both titles to Marshall's OQS Media group, to be jointly published withUnHerd.[100] OQS chief executive Freddie Sayers indicated an intent to expand in North America.[95]
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On 25 September 2024, formerConservativeMPMichael Gove was appointed as editor ofThe Spectator, replacing Fraser Nelson, who became associate editor, withCharles Moore becoming non-executive chair to replace Andrew Neil.[101] Gove is considered a long-standing ally of Paul Marshall.[102][103] TheNew Statesman reported thatSpectator staff were shocked at Nelson being replaced, after Nelson had written an article praising Marshall when the acquisition was announced.[104] One week earlier, Nelson had told theBritish Society of Magazine Editors that editors should "actively ignore" suggestions from owners, adding: "If you get sacked for it, you get sacked for it – but you hold the line. Famous last words." Regarding Marshall, he said: "I should be having no contact with him. In the same way I had no contact with the Barclays when they ownedThe Spectator."[105]
The Spectator is politicallyconservative.[106][107][108][109] Historically, the magazine wasliberal in outlook, and over the course of its first century supported theRadical wing of theWhigs, theLiberal Party, and theLiberal Unionists, who eventually merged with the Conservatives. In 1957, the magazine was nicknamed "the Bugger's Bugle" byThe Sunday Express following a sustained campaign byThe Spectator todecriminalise homosexuality.[110] It was the only national publication to endorseMargaret Thatcher for leadership of the Conservative Party in the1975 leadership election.[111][112][113]
Particularly since the7 July 2005 Islamic terrorist attacks on theLondon Underground,The Spectator has been critical ofmulticulturalism, arguing that it undermines Britain'snational identity and endangers its security throughsectarianism and growingIslamic extremism.[114]
As with its sister publicationThe Daily Telegraph,The Spectator is generallyAtlanticist and stronglyEurosceptic in outlook,[106] favouring close ties with theUnited States andNATO rather than with theEuropean Union. The magazine is a strong supporter ofIsrael.[115][116][117] Some of its articles have opposed the creation of a Palestinian state,[118] with one article arguing that a Palestinian state would be a "Trojan Horse" to destroy Israel.[119] It has also supported Ukraine following itsinvasion by Russia in 2022.[120][121]
Ahead of the2019 United Kingdom general election, the leading article in the magazine argued that illegal migrants living in the UK should be offered British citizenship.[122]The Spectator has been one of the most outspoken supporters of Brexit. The magazine campaigned against Britain joining the EuropeanCommon Market in the1975 referendum, and was one of only two national titles (alongside theMorning Star) to back a "Leave" vote in the2016 United Kingdom referendum, though it also provided a platform for "Remain" campaigners to argue for their side in the magazine and hosted a number of debates.[123][124]
The magazine has popularised or coined the phrases "The Establishment" (1955), "nanny state" (1965), "young fogey" (1984),[125] and "virtue signalling" (2015).[126]
TheShiva Naipaul Memorial Prize for outstanding travel writing offers £2,000 every year.[127] The first winner wasHilary Mantel in 1987.[128][129]
In addition to the permanent staff of writers, other contributors included:
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The editors ofThe Spectator have been:
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Notes
Citations
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)Speaking on a panel for the British Society of Magazine Editors less than a week ago, Nelson said the relationship between editor and proprietor should be "no relationship at all". "The editor is backed or sacked but never second guessed, never steered," he said, adding that Marshall "obviously likes us, he paid £100m for us – but I should be having no contact with him. In the same way I had no contact with the Barclays when they owned The Spectator. I think in 15 years they spoke to me about ten times." Nelson added that editors should "actively ignore" suggestions from proprietors and that: "If you get sacked for it, you get sacked for it – but you hold the line. Famous last words."
Andrew Neil, einer der schärfsten Interviewer der BBC und zugleich Herausgeber des rechtskonservativen Spectator.
Media related toThe Spectator at Wikimedia Commons
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