The Standard's Londoner's Diary today refers to a new magazine being published by the Social Affairs Unit - Stand Point - a serious monthly journal like Prospect that caters to people on the Right. It will be edited by Daniel Johnson, a Prospect contributor and former Associate Editor of The Telegraph who is actually the son of a former New Statesman editor. Its editorial board consists of Nobel Prize-winning writer VS Naipaul, artist David Hockney, Labour MP Frank Field and Conservative Shadow Minister Michael Gove.
The Londoner quotes someone involved in Stand Point saying that The Spectator had become too "syrupy" and "socialite". Is that unfair? What isn't mentioned is that Stand Point is largely funded by Alan Bekhor, a businessman in the shipping industry. I'm sceptical about the idea of investing in magazines with the advent of the internet, but I do hope it succeeds. With an impressive initial print run of 30,000 and contracts with shops like WH Smith's it certainly won't be small beer.
This comes as the The Business folds and becomes a monthly business magazine for the Spectator, Iain Dale works on a political trade magazine called Total Politics, and the New Statesman continues to run into difficulties.
