The case for trusting the public is stronger than ever

Our Plan is entirely new, comprising – 1. The whole News of the Week: selected, sifted, condensed and arranged as to be readable throughout. 2. A full and impartial exhibition of all the leading Politics of the Day. 3. A separate Discussion of Interesting Topics of a general nature, with a view to instruction and entertainment at the same time. 4. A Department devoted to Literatures… 5. Dramatic and Musical Criticism. 6. Scientific and Miscellaneous information.

— R.S. Rintoul’s announcement of a new weekly, July 1828

In the history of publishing, no magazine has ever printed a 10,000th issue. Until now. The Spectator is unusual not only in that it is the world’s oldest weekly, but that it still follows the formula that R.S. Rintoul set out in 1828: art and literature and culture should command as much attention as politics, foreign affairs and economics. Rintoul feared that his project was too romantic — and expensive — to be a commercial success. As he wrote to a friend, ‘mere ordinary success will not support The Spectator’.

The story of his magazine has been anything but ordinary. Whether fighting for the 1832 Reform Act or campaigning for the decriminalisation of homosexuality as early as the 1950s, we have often been at the vanguard of political reform. But the magazine itself has changed very little. Rintoul’s basic belief — that readers enjoy a variety of topics, including robust but civil debate — has proved as relevant to the 21st century as to the 19th. The digital era, remarkably enough, has brought more subscribers than ever to the printed magazine. We thus reach this milestone with greater sales than at any point in our history.