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May 2, 2018updated 23 Aug 2022 6:42pm

New Statesman to launch North America website in first stage of ‘major online expansion’

By Charlotte Tobitt

The New Statesman is launching a website dedicated to covering North America as its first step towards a “major online expansion”.

New Statesman America will arrive in the coming months under the editorship of Nicky Woolf, who has covered the US for the New Statesman and the Guardian, and will be based in New York.

Readers from the US and Canada already form more than a quarter of the New Statesman’s audience, and editor-in-chief Jason Cowley hopes to continue to grow this readership.

“We have ambitions to internationalise the New Statesman and this is the first stage of a major online expansion,” he said.

“Already our essays – by John Gray, John Bew, Shiraz Maher, Helen Lewis and others – are widely read and shared in North America, where we have a growing readership.

“I’m delighted that Nicky has joined us and Sophie [McBain] has rejoined. They are both first-rate journalists and will lead our American expansion.”

Readers in North America will soon find a dedicated homepage filled with coverage of stateside politics and culture.

McBain, a former New Statesman staff writer who has also been Middle East editor for the Associated Press, returns as US correspondent, while Mehdi Hasan will continue as a political columnist based in Washington DC.

New editor Woolf said: “There may never have been a time when great journalism has been more necessary than it is right now.

“I can’t wait to explore this opportunity to expand our vibrant American audience and continue the New Statesman’s work contextualising and illuminating the world in these dark times.

“In an era when at times even truth itself seems to be under siege, it is vital to challenge orthodoxy, give voice to the marginalised and hold the powerful to account.

“The New Statesman has more than a century of experience doing just that, and I could not be more proud, honoured or excited to be a part of this project.”

The announcement comes just two months after The Spectator launched a new website aimed at readers in the US that promised to remain neutral on President Donald Trump.

The New Statesman also announced today that it has welcomed Patrick Maguire as political correspondent, writing across print and online on British and international politics.

Maguire was previously a reporter at the Times and was the winner of the Anthony Howard Award for young journalists in 2016.

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