This week we have launched our new live blog dedicated to the defining multifaceted crisis of our times. The coronavirus pandemic – and the world’s response to it – has been described by the political philosopher John Gray, in a widely read essay in the Spring Special issue of the magazine, as a “turning point in history”.
The crisis has certainly intensified trends and forces that were already changing the world: the fragmentation of globalisation; the hardening of national borders; the need for more resilient supply chains, and so on. No one knows what its ultimate consequences will be for how we live, work and interact.
As part of our response to the crisis, we have accelerated the digital expansion of the New Statesman, and have continued to invest in our international coverage – most recently appointing our new US editor, Emily Tamkin, who is based in Washington, DC. Under the leadership of Jeremy Cliffe, our international editor, we have just launched a weekly newsletter on international affairs, World Review. A new podcast of the same name will follow. We have also appointed a new group head of data journalism, David Ottewell, who is leading our commitment to more data-led online reporting.
The New Statesman’s Covid-19 live blog, launched today, will be constantly updated and will showcase posts from our staff and guest writers as well as collating our reporting, data and analysis as it happens. It will summarise and link to the most essential and relevant pieces from other websites in our network, which provide specialist analysis on everything from medicine to the media, as well as newswires and other sources.
Alongside our political expertise, we have access to GlobalData’s team of analysts and terabytes of data on industries such as pharmaceuticals, energy and technology means we can offer regular news updates from experts around the world.
The blog will also collect some of our best writing on the pandemic – urgent political, scientific, medical, geopolitical and economic essays and commentary, and exclusive analysis of its effects on politics and government, the global economy, society and culture.
All the New Statesman team are now working from home in this changed world, and we are communicating remotely via conference calls and teleconferencing facilities such as Zoom. It’s a strange, challenging period. But necessity is the mother of invention, and new ways of working and communicating can lead to bold innovation and progress.
The mission of the New Statesman remains the same: to analyse and explain the defining issues driving change in the world today. We hope our new blog will prove to be an invaluable resource for our readers.
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