The New Statesman won two prestigious British Society of Magazine Editors (BSME) awards last night, including the Current Affairs and Politics editor of the year award for Jason Cowley.
The shortlisted titles included the Spectator, the Big Issue and Prospect. The judges, who awarded the prize to the New Statesman for the fourth time under Cowley’s editorship, said: “In increasingly tribal times, Jason Cowley continues to champion independence of thought and diversity of opinion, challenging his audience and producing a magazine that’s imaginative, unpredictable and interesting.”
John Simpson, the BBC’s world affairs editor, added: “As someone who has written reasonably regularly for the New Statesman, I have to agree. As a reader, it’s the unpredictability that I cherish – you never know what you’re going to get, and the opinions aren’t just from one little corner of the spectrum.”
Our cover art director Erica Weathers was also awarded Cover of the Year (consumer) for our 5 June 2020 issue “We Can’t Breathe”, illustrated by André Carrilho. In the accompanying piece Gary Younge explored how “what connects the most brazen forms of state violence against black people and the struggles of BAME coronavirus patients is systemic racism”.
Our political editor Stephen Bush was nominated for Columnist of the Year (consumer).
The New Statesman‘s paid-for circulation recently reached a 40-year high after 75 per cent growth in digital subscriptions and 12 per cent growth in print subscriptions. The title will soon launch a new website.