New Society was a left-of-centre British weekly political magazine founded in 1962 [1]. Its focus was the social sciences, which were just becoming 'accepted' as a respectable academic area at that time. This also meant that a booming jobs market in the area soon produced a good advertisement income-flow.
It was modelled to a certain extent on the already-flourishing New Scientist magazine, which had been founded in 1952 [2] and did for the sciences what New Society aimed to do for the social sciences. However, New Society was less successful and had a shorter life-span.
New Society was acquired in 1988 by the New Statesman, which merged the editorial teams and for the following eight years was renamed New Statesman and Society, before reverting to its former name.[3]
The merger was controversial amongst readers of both publications. New Society was published by a charitable trust and politically independent; the New Statesman was a left-leaning weekly. New Society focused on research; the New Statesman specialised in commentary. New Society readers feared in the merger their magazine would quickly lose its identity and that, in the long run, the sociological content would vanish. At first, these fears were addressed by the creation of a section within the magazine to focus on society matters, but this was dropped during one of the New Statesman And Society's frequent redesigns.
Shortly after the merger, Andrew Neil's Sunday Times launched a cheeky supplement under the name New Society, hoping to attract some of the job advertising which underwrote the publication. It was a short-lived experiment.
Notable members of staff or contributors included:
Bibliography
- Paul Barker (1972) One for Sorrow, Two for Joy: Ten Years of "New Society", Allen and Unwin, ISBN 0-04-300041-X
- Paul Barker (ed) (1977) Arts in Society (reprint: 2006, Five Leaves Publications, ISBN 1-905512-07-4) - contains essays by John Berger and Angela Carter, among others
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