Plugging a need: the grand old british tradition of magazine journalism | thearticle

The death of Tony Elliott (pictured above), who founded _Time Out _in 1968 and built it into a business empire, illustrates the perennial truth of the great American editor Irving Kristol’s

injunction: “If you have an idea, start a magazine.” _Time Out _is a textbook example of a title that filled a gap in the market: a listings magazine that covered both the London

counterculture and mainstream arts. Like his Stowe contemporary Richard Branson, Elliott had enjoyed a privileged education, but he was only an ordinary undergraduate at Keele when he

decided to spend a £75 present from his aunt on creating the magazine he wanted to read: “I think people took one look at the clarity of what we were doing and thought: ‘Why hasn’t anyone

thought of doing this before?’ It was really plugging a need.” When his staff went on strike in 1981, the then Leader of the Greater London Council, Ken Livingstone, devoted public money to

supporting a rival brand, _City Limits. _When _Time Out _reappeared, it soon saw off its competitor, thereby demonstrating another fact of life: state authorities are hopeless at backing

winners. By the time Elliott had extended _Time Out _into a global brand, he was worth £91 million. Magazines have been around for almost as long as newspapers; indeed, the distinction

between the two is often hard to define. One of the most successful magazines of all, _The Economist_, still considers itself a newspaper and other oldest of them all, _The Spectator, _only

abandoned its newspaper format in the second half of the century. That era was a golden age for a new genre, originating in America: the illustrated news magazine. _Time _and _Newsweek _were

imitated everywhere, but with distinctive national characteristics: in France _Paris Match _was admired above all for its stylish photography, while in Germany _Der Spiegel _gained prestige

by running long-form articles and interviews worthy of _The New Yorker._ In Britain the national newspaper culture, especially popular at weekends, was strong enough to see off the

challenge by creating their own “colour supplements”. The weekly magazines adapted by focusing on comment and analysis, rather than news and pictures.   Rising to the digital challenge,

magazines have not only survived into the 21st century but flourished, with new titles emerging all the time. Indeed, _TheArticle _is one of them. Although we prefer to define ourselves as

an online publishing platform, our wide range of views and subject matter place _TheArticle_ firmly in the proud British tradition of magazine journalism, steadily increasing circulation

while maintaining the highest standards. Anyone who wishes to learn about that tradition should read _10,000 Not Out: The History of The Spectator, 1828-2020. _In just 250 crowded pages

David Butterfield, also a contributor to _TheArticle, _succeeds brilliantly in his task of evoking the past of the only magazine in the world to have reached 10,000 issues. _The Spectator

_is also the only magazine that can claim to have been edited by two Chancellors of the Exchequer (Iain Macleod and Nigel Lawson) and, of course, the present Prime Minister. Butterfield’s

razor-sharp eye traces every connection between the magazine and that microcosm of British society to which one of its writers, Henry Fairlie, gave a name that has stuck: the Establishment.

If _Time Out _and _Private Eye _used to appeal to those who saw themselves as rebels against the Establishment, _The Spectator _was its house magazine. But precisely because it was at the

heart of the Establishment, it could reveal the latter’s machinations — as Macleod famously did in his exposure of “the magic circle” that chose the Tory leader in 1963, thereby ensuring

that a Prime Minister could never be selected by a secret cabal again.   For those who wish to understand not only the romance and hard grind of journalism, but also the subtle nexus of

politics and the press, _10,000 Not Out _will make enjoyable summer reading. Not that readers of _TheArticle _will need reminding, but the grand old British tradition of magazine journalism

that Butterfield chronicles is alive and kicking — as former practitioners, now on the receiving end in high office, are well aware.